2 drug peddlers nabbed in Shariff Aguak

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines -   Lawmen separately intercepted Monday in Shariff Aguak town in the province three drug traffickers peddling shabu in enclaves of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Inspector Marlon Silvestre, chief of the Shariff Aguak municipal police, said policemen first arrested Michael Rosales, 32, and his accomplice, the 25-year-old Rommel Mendez, at a joint Army-police security roadblock on the  national highway near the town center.

Rosales and Mendez were on their way to Gen. Santos City riding a motorcycle together when they were flagged down for inspection by policemen, who recovered from them several sachets of shabu and a .45 caliber pistol.

The arrest of Rosales and Mendez came after soldiers and policemen at another checkpoint nabbed drug dealer Jimmy Kaurak Lozada, of Barangay Labo-Labo in Shariff Aguak.

Lozada voluntarily yielded the shabu he was to deliver to a buyer somewhere near a stronghold of the BIFF at the  shared oundaries of Maguindanao’s  Shariff Aguak, Datu Saudi and Guindulungan towns.

Rosales and Mendez have both confessed to their drug peddling activities in the same areas where Lozada sold shabu.

Police investigators and Army intelligence operatives are now validating tipsk from confidential informants purporting that the three cashiered drug dealers enjoyed the protection from certain leaders of the outlawed BIFF.