3 drug den operators, 'roaming' shabu dealer busted in PDEA operations

COTABATO CITY — Anti-narcotics agents arrested three drug den operators and a "roaming" shabu dealer in separate operations in Buluan, Maguindanao del Sur and in Tupi, South Cotabato on Wednesday.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, reported on Thursday that drug den operators Basser Akmad, Watari Sabel and Alison Mamaluba, who fell in an entrapment operation in Barangay Upper Siling in Buluan, the capital of Maguindanao del Sur, are now in their custody.

Castro said their agents and personnel of different units of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region immediately cuffed and detained the three suspects after selling to them P102,000 worth of shabu in a clandestine tradeoff in Barangay Upper Siling in Buluan.

The sting that led to the arrest of Akmad, Sabel and Mamaluba was laid with the help of their relatives aware of their operation of a drug den in Barangay Siling.

Agents of PDEA-12 had entrapped earlier the same day Darnie Salarda in Barangay Crossing Rubber in Tupi, South Cotabato and confiscated from him P13,600 worth of shabu.

Local officials and barangay leaders had confirmed to reporters that Salarda peddled shabu to laborers of pineapple plantations in different barangays in Tupi with the help of accomplices with motorcycles.

Aileen Lovitos, director of PDEA-12, said on Thursday that  Salarda voluntarily yielded and had himself cuffed peacefully when he sensed that he sold three sachets of shabu to non-uniformed anti-narcotics agents.

Lovitos said that they are grateful to barangay officials who provided them information about Salarda’s shabu and marijuana peddling activities, enabling them to entrap him immediately.