Men caught smuggling drugs using baby’s diaper in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Two drug couriers on Thursday attempted but failed to smuggle from Talitay town illegal drugs hidden in an infant’s disposable diaper.

Jihad Abas and Hasmaden Rasol were intercepted by policemen while travelling from of Talitay, located along the Liguasan Delta in the second district of Maguindanao, bringing with them an infant whose diaper they stuffed with methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu).

Abas and Rasol readily admitted to probers they were to deliver the drugs policemen seized from them to a buyer in a nearby town.

The mayor of Talitay, Montasir Sabal, was among local officials President Rodrigo Duterte earlier tagged as drug lords, listed in his roster of “narco-politicians” allegedly engaged in large-scale trafficking of shabu.

Senior Inspector Reggie Abellera, chief of the Talitay municipal police, said they learned of the attempt of Abas and Rasol to use a child as cover for their illegal activities from neighbors and local religious leaders.

The duo were said to have smuggled shabu from Talitay to nearby towns more than a dozen times using the same modus since July this year.

They were arrested three weeks after policemen in a nearby town, also in Maguindanao, nabbed a woman hiding P150,000 worth of shabu in her underwear while on her way to Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat province.

Abellera said they have charged Abas and Rasol with violation of the Philippine Dangerous Drugs Act before a local court.

The child they tried to use in their botched drug smuggling attempt had been turned over to municipal social welfare workers.