P29.9-M worth shabu seized in joint PDEA-police Zamboanga operation

COTABATO CITY — Plainclothes policemen and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-9 seized P29.9 million worth of shabu from a peddler entrapped in Barangay Divisoria in Zamboanga City at about noontime Monday, November 18.

Brig. Gen. Bowenn Joey Masauding, director of the Police Regional Office-9, told reporters on Monday afternoon that they are now in custody of shabu peddler Azraf Kayza Julkarim Ikbala. He would be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Masauding said Ikbala was immediately frisked and cuffed and after selling four kilos of shabu, costing P29.9 million, to operatives of PRO-9’s Regional Drug Enforcement Unit, personnel of the Zamboanga City Police Office and agents of PDEA-9 during a tradeoff at Palawan Zone II in Barangay Divisoria.

Police officials involved in the operation said the sting that led to the arrest of Ikbala and the confiscation from him of P29.9 million worth of shabu was premised on tips by confidential informants about his large-scale distribution of shabu in Zamboanga City and nearby towns Zamboanga Sibugay province.

Masauding said their intelligence operatives and PDEA-9 agents are still trying to identify the accomplices and contacts of Ikbala in Zamboanga City.