P13.6-M worth of shabu seized in two PDEA-BARMM stings

COTABATO CITY — Anti-narcotics agents confiscated P13.6 million worth of shabu from four traffickers who fell in separate entrapment operations in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur and in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said on Thursday that their agents first arrested Alpatan Tomawis Abdulazis on Tuesday after selling to them P6.8 million worth of shabu in an entrapment operation in Barangay Biaba-Damag in Marawi City.

Castro said that the operation that led to the arrest of Abdulazis and confiscation from him of a kilo of shabu was planned with the help of units of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and senior members of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Peace and Order Council led by Gov. Mamintal A. Adiong Jr.

“He is now detained, soon to have his day in court,” Castro said.

Three more peddlers, Kison Sagaan Sakili, Samsoden Kali Gandal and Faisal Saripada Darapa, fell in a P6.8 million worth shabu tradeoff with PDEA-BARMM agents and policemen disguised as drug dependents on Thursday in Barangay Tamontaka in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.

Sakili, Gandal and Darapa first tried to run away, but eventually yielded after hearing warning shots and sensing that PDEA-BARMM agents and personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station were to neutralize them if they did not cooperate.

Castro said that they have succeeded in clamping down the three shabu dealers with the help of local officials and barangay leaders in Tamontaka, located at the border of Datu Odin Sinsuat and Cotabato City. The three suspects will be prosecuted for the violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.