4-year run ends for Sibugay drug lord caught in pot session with students

PAGADIAN CITY—-Police after four years finally caught up with a drug suspect listed as a high-value target in the campaign against drugs in Zamboanga Sibugay province.

Maj. Norbert Velonza, head of Zamboanga del Sur’s Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit, said Arnold Madahan, of Buug, Zamboanga Sibugay, was arrested on Tuesday (Jan. 28) while in a pot session with four students in a lodging house in the city.

Velonza said Madahan was on the list of high-value targets of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Zamboanga Sibugay.

Police and PDEA operatives cornered Madahan through an undercover agent who pretended to buy drugs outside the lodging house where Madahan was renting two rooms.

One of the rooms was used as storage for drugs while the other was used as a den where Madahan’s clients can use the drugs he sells.

Arrested with Madahan were Carl Sabate, Christian Jayson Idong, Mark Reyes and Stephen Kent Buhisan, all students.

Authorities seized from Madahan 10 grams of shabu, or crystal meth, worth an estimated P76,000 and drug paraphernalia.

Velonza said that Madahan was previously arrested for drugs in 2015 but walked away when his case was dismissed in court.

Authorities have resumed tailing him since 2018 until he left Zamboanga Sibugay. It was later learned that he has been trading drugs here in the last four years.

The arrested suspects are now in the custody of the PDEA.

Edited by TSB