P65-M worth shabu destroyed in Sulu the unusual way

COTABATO CITY — Officials on Wednesday constructed an iconic marker in the premises of a court in Patikul, Sulu from a mixture of cement and P65 million worth of shabu confiscated in anti-narcotics operations in the island province in the past 14 months.

The peculiar destruction of nine kilos of shabu by Gil Cesario Castro, who is director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Sulu provincial officials, Judge Shene Cañete of the Regional Trial Court Branch 4 in Patikul and representatives of different police units in the island province, was a first in BARMM.

Castro said that the P65 million worth of shabu used as "material" for the marker was seized in entrapment operations in different towns in Sulu in recent months.

He said that the peddlers from whom PDEA-BARMM agents and police operatives had confiscated the shabu they destroyed on Wednesday had all been convicted for trafficking of narcotics. They are now serving jail terms.

Castro said that they are thankful to local executives in Sulu and the chairman of their Provincial Peace and Order Council, Gov. Abdusakur Tan Sr., to units of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and the military’s Western Mindanao Commmand for having supported the operations that led to the confiscation of the P65 million worth shabu in different operations in the province.

“It was all about inter-agency, multi-sectoral cooperation. The support of the local communities was also a big factor in these accomplishments,” Castro said.

The PDEA-BARMM twice burned between 2020 to 2023 more than P300 million worth of shabu in an incinerator in a private cornstarch factory in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao del Norte, confiscated in separate anti-narcotics stings in different Bangsamoro towns and provinces in Central Mindanao.

The PDEA-BARMM covers the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato.