P3.4-M worth shabu seized in Marawi operation

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency seized P3.4 million worth of shabu from a peddler entrapped in Marawi City on Wednesday, March 12.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the PDEA-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said on Thursday, March 13, that the suspect was immediately detained after selling half a kilo of shabu, worth P3.4 million, to non-uniformed PDEA-BARMM agents and policemen in Barangay Matampay in Marawi City.

Castro said the entrapment operation was carried out with the help of Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. and the regional director of the Bangsamoro police, Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz, and Muslim religious leaders in Marawi City.

Castro said PDEA-BARMM agents and policemen together launched the entrapment operation in Purok 4 in Barangay Matampay after receiving tips from confidential informants about the suspect’s large-scale trafficking of shabu in Marawi City and in nearby towns in Lanao del Sur.

The suspect, a resident of Barangay Kanyugan Papandayan in Marawi City, yielded peacefully when he realized that he had sold his illegal merchandise to PDEA-BARMM agents and personnel of the Marawi City Police Office disguised as drug dependents.