ZAMBOANGA, Philippines – Authorities seized some P14.5 million worth of suspected shabu (meth) in separate operations that saw a suspect killed and five others arrested in Zamboanga City on Saturday and Sunday, June 15 and 16.
Police identified the drug suspect killed as Jabar Pidlasi and those arrested during the two separate anti-drug operations as Mohammad Rieza Timpahan, Aliyasar Mohammad Kahal, Isniraya Hassan, Gapor Jalaluddin, and Katrina Ajihil.
Lieutenant Colonel Elmer Solon, chief of the Philippine National Police’s Regional Drug Enforcement Unit in the Zamboanga Peninsula, said the second operation on Sunday resulted in the confiscation of two kilograms of suspected shabu worth P13.6 million.
The operation carried out with the help of Naval Intelligence and Security Group agents, also led to the arrest of three suspects – Hassan, Jalaluddin, and Ajihil – during a buy-bust operation at Zone 5, Barangay Tumaga, Zamboanga City.
Hassan, a suspect in the police’s drug watchlist, is a resident of Zamboanga, while Jalaluddin and Ajihil are from Tawi-Tawi province.
The suspects, according to Solon, were caught with suspected shabu packed in two large vacuum-sealed transparent plastic sachets and marked money.
The night before, police killed Pidlasi in a shootout with members of the Zamboanga police’s City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU) during a buy-bust operation in Barangay Mampang.
Captain Royland Cordero, CDEU chief, said the shootout took place when Pidlasi, who had a caliber .45 pistol, resisted and tried to escape.
Cordero said Pidlasi’s alleged cohorts – Timpahan and Kahal – were arrested by the CDEU operatives, and seized from them suspected shabu worth P879,400 and marked money used by authorities in the Saturday night operation.
Police said Timpahan and Kahal, along with the three other suspects caught on Sunday, were detained at the Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO), and complaints were being prepared to be filed against them before the local prosecutor’s office. – Rappler.com