P3-M plus worth shabu seized from dealers linked to terrorists

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Anti-narcotics agents seized more than P3 million worth of shabu from two dealers, linked to the now-defunct Dawlah Islamiya and the Abu Sayyaf terror groups, who both eluded attempts to entrap them in the Bangsamoro region but eventually got busted one after another within just two days.

Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-12 immediately detained a drug dealer, initially identified only as Mohammad, after selling to them P37,672 worth of shabu during an entrapment operation on Tuesday morning, November 18, at Purok 11 in Barangay Batomelong in General Santos City.

Officials of intelligence units under the Army’s 6th Infantry Division confirmed to reporters on Wednesday that the suspect had links with certain leaders of the Dawlah Islamiya, who coddled him in Maguindanao del Sur’s adjoining Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Datu Salibo and in Mamasapano towns after evading three entrapment operations in the province between 2022 to 2024.

Mohammad is a resident of General Santos City, but has relatives in Maguindanao del Sur who are identified with the Dawlah Islamiya, according to officials of 6th ID and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

Charlene Magdurulang, director of PDEA-12, said they will prosecute Mohammad for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Another drug dealer, one from Indanan town in Sulu, whose name police officials held in the meantime while efforts to locate his accomplices are still underway, was arrested after selling to operatives of the Police Regional Office-9 half a kilo of shabu, costing P3.4 million, in Purok 1 in Barangay Sinunuc in Zamboanga City on Monday morning, November 17.

Like Mohammad, the suspect entrapped in Barangay Sinunuc by combined operatives from different units of Police Regional Office-9 and the Drug Enforcement Group-Special Operations Unit-9, which under the headquarters of the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame in Quezon City, had also reportedly eluded at least four entrapment operations, him as main target, in island towns in the Bangsamoro region in the past three years.

Local executives in Sulu and officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region told reporters on Wednesday that the suspect, now in the custody of PRO-9, which covers three provinces and four cities in the Zamboanga peninsula and all towns in Sulu, has relatives in the now unfunctional Abu Sayyaf and four of them surrendered last week, along with more many others, during a symbolic rite at Camp Col. Romeo A. Abendan in Barangay Mercedes in Zamboanga City.

Brig. Gen Edwin Quilates, director of PRO-9, said he is thankful to police officials and local executives in the Bangsamoro region and in Zamboanga City for supporting the entrapment operation that resulted in the arrest of the drug dealer from Sulu and the confiscation of P3.4 million worth of shabu.