Tips from relatives lead to arrest of 2 drug suspects in Region 12

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Anti-narcotics operatives arrested two drug traffickers in separate operations in two cities in Region 12, premised on reports by their relatives, long aware of their criminal activities, annoyed by their having ignored their appeals for them to reform for good.

The first to fall in the two entrapment operations is a 26-year-old male peddler, immediately arrested after selling P544 worth of shabu to agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 12 and policemen from different units of the Police Regional Office 12 in Barangay Zone 3 in Koronadal City in South Cotabato province.

Charlene Magdurulang, director of PDEA 12, said the entrapment operation that resulted in the arrest of the male suspect, planned with the help of South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr. and his constituent-community leaders in Koronadal City, was premised on reports by his neighbors and relatives about his circulation of shabu in Barangay Zone 3 and in nearby areas.

Magdurulang said their agents and policemen under PRO-12 had also arrested, in a separate operation on Thursday, a 52-year-old male trafficker after turning over to them P40,800 worth of shabu during a tradeoff along a stretch of Sampaloc Street in Barangay Dadiangas West in General Santos City.

Close relatives of the suspect had earlier reported to the PDEA 12 his shabu shabu peddling activities in General Santos City, enabling its agents to plot the entrapment operation that led to his arrest.

Magdurulang said the two suspects, now both in their custody, are to be prosecuted separately for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.