P3.4-M worth of shabu seized in Cotabato City PDEA bust

COTABATO CITY — Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency finally entrapped an elusive narcotics trafficker and seized from him P3.4 million worth of shabu in an operation in Barangay Rosary Heights 3 in this city on Tuesday, May 20.

The suspect, now locked in a detention facility of the PDEA-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is one of the agency's top ten most wanted shabu and marijuana dealers in Cotabato City and Maguindanao del Norte province, tagged as  a “high value target." 

Gil Cesario Castro, director of PDEA-BARMM, told reporters on Wednesday, May 21, that the suspect voluntarily turned himself in when he noticed that he had sold half a kilo of shabu, costing P3.6 million, to anti-narcotics agents during a clandestine tradeoff along the Al-Salam Street in Barangay Rosary Heights 3.

Castro said the sting that led to his arrest and confiscation of P3.4 million worth of shabu was carried out by PDEA-BARMM agents with the help of the director of the Cotabato City police, Col. Jibin Bongcayao, and his immediate superior, PRO-BAR’s director, Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz. 

Castro said the suspect, now detained in their office at the PC Hill area in Cotabato City, would be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.