Zamboanga City drug syndicate busted—police

MANILA, Philippines—A monthlong crackdown on illegal drug activities in Zamboanga City has paralyzed a notorious drug syndicate and raised the street value of shabu, or methamphetamine hydrochloride, in the region, narcotics officials said on Thursday.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said its series of operations in April led to the capture of Nadzul Alih, the leader of the Alih Drug Group, and his cohorts, in collaboration with other law-enforcement units in the city.

“The arrest of Nadzul [Alih] and 19 of his members is a big setback for the group’s operation in Zamboanga,” PDEA Director General Jose S. Gutierrez Jr. said in a statement.

“Distributors are now lying low and street-level pushers are having reservations transacting with clients for fear of being caught,” he said.

Gutierrez added that the region-wide street value of shabu had been observed to rise from P3,500 per gram to P4,500 per gram after the consecutive arrests of the Alih Drug Group members.

The official said Alih was arrested on April 13 in Barangay Canelar on the strength of a warrant issued by a local court on drug charges.

Then, on April 16, agents foiled an attempt to break Alih out of detention, and arrested six men later identified as his subordinates in the syndicate, the official said.

Six more members of the Alih Drug Group were arrested through buy-bust transactions involving the sale of shabu conducted separately in Zamboanga City from April 18 to 29.

Two were arrested on April 18 in Purok 3-A, Barangay (village) Recodo for selling; two more on April 25 in Caragasan, Sinunuc; and another two on April 29 in Barangay Patalon.

The following day, seven others were nabbed during a raid at a residential compound in Barangay Recodo, the PDEA said.