ZAMBOANGA CITY – Philippine police arrested a Japanese man and a Filipino woman in a drug sting in the southern port city of Zamboanga, officials said Friday afternoon.
Chief Inspector Helen Galvez, a regional police spokeswoman, said the 59-year old Hiroyuki Takahashi and Mary Jane Huerto, 43, were arrested in the village of Tetuan before midnight after selling methamphetamine hydrochloride or “ice” to undercover agents.
Agents seized four packets of the illegal drugs also known locally as “shabu” and the marked money used to buy the ice. Takahashi and the woman were being investigated by the police here.
Other reports said the Japanese man has been living in Zamboanga for the past six years, but it was unknown whether he was part of a drug syndicate or not. Little about him is known and there was no immediate statement from the Japanese embassy of the Department of Foreign Affairs on Takahashi’s arrest.
“The confiscated items were brought to the crime laboratory office examination while the subjects are presently detained at Zamboanga City police station for the filing of appropriate charges in court,” Galvez said.
Just this week, police undercover agents also seized one kilo of shabu from 3 local men who sold the drug to a poseur buyer inside a restaurant in downtown Zamboanga. (Mindanao Examiner)
