BUSTED. Police and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency operatives arrest four people and seize some PHP2.1 million worth of cocaine in an anti-drug operation Monday (Sept. 28, 2020) in Barangay Zone 4, Zamboanga City. The four suspects (standing, left) hide their faces from the camera as a PDEA agent conducts an inventory on the seized illegal drugs. (PNA file photo by Teofilo P. Garcia, Jr.)
ZAMBOANGA CITY – A team of police and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives arrested four people and seized PHP2.1 million worth of cocaine in an anti-drug operation here, officials said Tuesday.
Brig. Gen. Jesus Cambay Jr., Police Regional Office-9 (PRO-9) director, identified the suspects as Leomyr Dela Calzada Toribio, 35; Jawawi Landasan Alih, 25; Abdel Joran Nasser, 24; and Alfred Rico Alvarez, 42.
The four suspects were arrested in a buy-bust around 5 p.m. Monday on Don Pablo Lorenzo Street, Barangay Zone 4, Cambay said
Cambay said the suspects yielded some 400 grams of cocaine with an estimated value of PHP2.1 million and a bundle of PHP1.1 million boodle money topped with one genuine PHP1,000 bill as marked money.
Col. Rexmel Reyes, officer-in-charge of the Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO), said the operation was a result of the three-month intelligence-driven monitoring on the illegal activities of the suspects.
“It is a breakthrough in the campaign against illegal drugs in this city,” Reyes said, noting that the suspects are on the police drug watch list.
He said the cocaine was sourced from Jolo, Sulu, based on the initial investigation on the suspects.
The suspects were placed under the temporary custody of the Police Station 11. (PNA)
