Peddler killed, P3.1 million worth of shabu seized in Lanao del Sur

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Policemen shot dead a trafficker, arrested another and seized P3.1 million worth of shabu in an anti-narcotics operation in Ditsaan Ramain town in Lanao del Sur last Friday, July 31.

Local executives, among them ranking members of the multi-sector Lanao del Sur Provincial Peace and Order Council, said on Wednesday that the arrested shabu peddler, Musa Nahar Umayog, is now locked in a police detention facility, to be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Captain Steffie Salanguit, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Wednesday that the companion of Umayog, a certain Alnor, was killed in a brief clash that he provoked then when he sensed that they had sold shabu to plainclothes policemen in Barangay Baklayan in Ditsaan Ramain, one of the 39 towns in Lanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Salanguit and PRO-BAR’s director, Brig. Gen. Christopher Abecia, separately told reporters that the operation that led to the arrest of Alnor’s companion, Umayog, and seizure from him of 466 grams of shabu, costing P3.1 million, involved policemen from the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit, operatives from the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and the Ditsaan Ramain Municipal Police Station.

Local executives, among them members of the multi-sector Lanao del Sur Provincial Peace and Order Council, said Alnor, a known large-scale shabu and marijuana dealer, ran away after the tradeoff and shot at the policemen chasing him, provoking a brief shootout that resulted in his death.

Salanguit said Alnor was declared dead on arrival by physicians at the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City, where policemen and civilian emergency responders brought him for treatment.  

The now-detained Umayog, who yielded peacefully to the police team that procured shabu from him and Alnor, shall be prosecuted in court using the P3.1 million worth of shabu confiscated during the entrapment operation as evidence.

Policemen also impounded their Honda 125 XRM motorcycle that they used in delivering shabu to contacts in different towns in Lanao del Sur, according to Salanguit.