Gov’t employee busted in Cotabato City PDEA operation

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on Thursday seized P375,000 worth of shabu from an alleged employee of one agency in the Bangsamoro government, entrapped in a residential area here on Thursday.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of PDEA-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said on Friday morning that the suspect, Marco Abdul Saban, was immediately arrested and detained after selling 55 grams of shabu, costing P375,000, to plainclothes anti-narcotics agents in Barangay Tamontaka Mother here.

The sting that led to his arrest was laid with the help of units of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and senior personnel of the Cotabato City Police Office, who told reporters that Saban works in one of the offices in the capitol of the Bangsamoro region.

The sources, however, declined to name the office where Saban is employed, citing that policemen are still investigating Saban’s possible links with large-scale drug dealers in provinces around.

Thursday’s arrest here of an alleged government employee involved in drug trafficking is nothing new.

Three policemen and a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit fell in a series of entrapment operations here last year, now being prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.