ZAMBOANGA, Philippines – Authorities arrested a suspected drug dealer and seized nearly P7 million worth of suspected shabu (meth) in Zamboanga Sibugay on Saturday, June 22, just a day after officials declared 11 villages in five towns in the province drug-free.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in the Zamboanga Peninsula identified the arrested suspect as 42-year-old Hairy Ramos Baladji, allegedly a big-time drug dealer from Bangkaw-Bangkaw, Naga town in Zamboanga Sibugay.
PDEA-Zamboanga Peninsula Director Maharani Gadaoni-Tosoc said Baladji was arrested during a buy-bust operation staged at Purok B in Poblacion, Kabasalan town, at around 12:50 pm on Saturday.
Gadaoni-Tosoc said Baladji’s companion, Ibrahim Amil, managed to evade arrest.
Baladji was caught with a kilogram of suspected shabu estimated to be worth P6.8 million. The drugs were packed in a vacuum-sealed transparent plastic sachet wrapped with packaging tape.
Bundles of marked money and pieces of paper, used in the entrapment, were also seized from the suspect, who is now facing charges for violation of the law on illegal drugs before the local prosecutor’s office.
Saturday’s drug haul was the second-largest confiscation made by government authorities in the Zamboanga Peninsula this month, following the June 15 seizure of two kilograms of suspected shabu worth P13.6 million and the arrest of three suspects in Barangay Tumaga, Zamboanga City.
The Zamboanga Sibugay operation came after the Regional Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug Clearing (ROCBDC) added 11 villages to its list of drug-cleared barangays following an evaluation on Friday, June 21. The barangays that were given the clearance are located in the towns of Kabasalan, Malangas, Payao, RT Lim, and Titay.
Zamboanga Sibugay, which comprises a dozen towns, has 389 barangays with a population of 669,840 as of the 2020 census.
The parameters for declaring a barangay as drug-cleared include the absence of drug supply, transshipment activity, clandestine drug laboratories and warehouses, marijuana cultivation sites, drug dens, pushers, users or dependents, protectors or coddlers, and financiers. – Rappler.com
