ZAMBOANGA CITY--Anti-narcotics agents here arrested two sexagenarian women and seized an estimated PHP6.8 million worth of illegal drugs, police said Wednesday.
Senior Insp. Shelamie Chang, Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO) information officer, identified the arrested suspects as Hadja Sitti Bairulla Jalaidi, 60, and Norma Awod, 63. They were arrested in a buy-bust operation around 7 p.m. Tuesday along Veterans Avenue, Barangay Zone 3, this city.
Chang said Jalaidi, also known as Hadja Sitti Karanain, is listed by police as the leader of the local drug group. Awod, meanwhile, is a newly-identified drug personality, she added.
She said recovered from the possessions of the suspects were a pack of more or less one kilo of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu”, four medium-size heat-sealed plastic sachets also containing suspected shabu, PHP6,000 cash, including PHP1,000 marked money, a cellular phone and a sports utility vehicle with registered plate JDM-394.
An official of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) disclosed that the market value of a kilo of shabu is PHP6.8 million based on the prevailing price per gram of PHP6,800.
Chang said the seized illegal drugs were forwarded to the Regional Crime Laboratory for qualitative and quantitative examination, while the suspects were detained at the ZCPO headquarters.
Appropriate charges are being readied to be filed against them, police said. (PNA)
