Phone vendor nabbed for selling shabu in sidewalk

BAGUIO CITY -- A merchant who hails from Mindanao, was found to be using his sidewalk cell phone vending area as front in peddling shabu.

The alleged pusher, who vends second-hand cellular phones, was arrested at the back of the Baguio Center Mall.

He was identified as James Bani Ali, 31, male, married, high school graduate, and resident of No. 120 Crystal Cave, Bakakeng Central, Baguio City.

He claimed to be a native of Baguio and that his monthly income as a vendor amounted to P10,500 monthly.

A sachet of shabu was sold by Ali to an agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency – Cordillera who posed as buyer in a buy-bust operation at around 6 p.m. last March 6.

A subsequent body search on him yielded two more sachets of the illegal drug.

The confiscated three sachets of shabu, which exactly weighed .44 grams, had a street cost of about P6, 000.

Cases for illegal drugs were filed March 7 against Ali, before the office of the city prosecutor.

Bakakeng Central, the barangay where Crystal Cave is located and Ali’s place of residence, has long been listed as a drug-affected barangay.