P4.4-M worth of shabu seized in latest PDEA-9 operation

COTABATO CITY — Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-9 seized P4.4 million worth of shabu from three peddlers entrapped in a residential area in Ipil town in Zamboanga Sibugay on Wednesday night, September 11.

Maharani Gadaoni-Tosoc, director of PDEA-9, told reporters on Thursday that the suspects, Arman Aljas Estrada, Ronnel Evedientes Jamin and Jomari Gonzales Sanson, are now detained. They will be charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

The two of them, one armed with a 9 millimeter pistol and the other carrying a vintage .30 caliber Carbine rifle, first resisted and opened fire at the PDEA-9 agents and policemen to whom they have sold their P4.4 million worth illegal merchandise and even tried to run away as the gunfight ensued. 

PDEA-9 agents and personnel of units under Brig. Gen. Bowenn Joey Masauding, director of the Police Regional Office-9, had subdued and cuffed Estrada Jamin and Sanson after a brief chase.

Gadaoni-Tosoc said the entrapment operation that resulted in the arrest of the three suspects was premised on reports by municipal officials and barangay leaders in Ipil about their large-scale peddling of shabu in the adjoining Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur provinces and in a number of barangays in Zamboanga City.