P1M worth shabu seized by PDEA in Lanao Sur operation

COTABATO CITY — Anti-narcotics agents seized P1 million worth of shabu after a gunfight with dealers they were supposed to entrapped in a secluded area in Wao, Lanao del Sur on Wednesday, October 30.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told reporters on Thursday that they were to entrap a dealer named Paulo at Barangay Kili Kili East in Wao, but the operation turned haywire when his armed companions, positioned as lookouts, opened fire when they sensed he was to sell shabu to law-enforcement operatives.

Paulo and his companions managed to scamper away after trading shots with PDEA-BARMM agents and a joint police-Army team that helped carry out the entrapment operation that went awry. 

Castro and his subordinate agents had seized the P1 million worth of shabu left by the group in the spot where the supposed tradeoff was to take place.

Barangay leaders and municipal officials in Wao assured Castro that they would assist in filing criminal cases in absentia against Paulo and his companions, who are now the focus of a joint manhunt by the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade.