3 arrested, P1M shabu seized in Tagum buy-bust

TAGUM CITY – Police authorities on Saturday arrested three people here, including a minor, and seized over P1 million worth of illegal drugs during a buy-bust operation at an inn just across the city police office.

Raisah Raidiamuda Amer, 45; Jaber Amer Managa, 18; and a teenage boy, were apprehended during the buy-bust operation in one of the rooms of WBC Lodge on Osmeña St. in Magugpo Poblacion around 8:30 a.m., according to Chief Insp. Francis Sonza, the chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Davao del Norte.

The suspects are residents of Iligan City, Sonza said.

Seized during the operation were a large heat-sealed sachet containing suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu weighing 125 grams and estimated to fetch P1,088,095 on the streets, marked money and drug-using paraphernalia.

Authorities also confiscated a black Toyota Innova (ZTS-113) believed to be used by the suspects in traveling from Iligan to this city.

Sonza, in a recent interview said they were zeroing in on inns, hotels and pension houses in the city – which are being used by drug peddlers – most of whom come from Lanao and Cotabato areas, in dealing shabu in Tagum.

The police official described Amer as the “Madam” of a big-time drug trafficking group from Iligan.

Last month, CIDG men under Sonza also arrested five people, including a relative of Mayor Allan Rellon, for allegedly trying to sell drugs at a lodging house here. Firearms, explosives and suspected shabu valued at P180,000 were seized during the said raid.

“Tagum has become both a transit point and market for illegal drugs coming from Northern Mindanao,” the police official said.

Sonza said the tight law enforcement operations in Davao City have also exerted pressures on drug peddlers to go elsewhere, including here.

Unknown to drug traffickers, law enforcement was equally tight here, he said.

Sonza said the series of raids and anti-drug operations here had somehow helped in reducing the supply of shabu circulating in the city, as evidenced by the recent increase in shabu price from P7,000 to P9,000.

“We are relentless in our drive against illegal drugs here,” said Sonza.