P748K worth of shabu seized in 2 operations in Bangsamoro provinces

COTABATO CITY — Anti-narcotics agents seized P748,000 worth of shabu from two dealers, one of them reportedly connected to two local terrorist groups, entrapped in separate operations in two Bangsamoro provinces on Friday.

The first to fall in the two operations was Sibal Sampang, arrested by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao after selling to them P340,000 worth of shabu in a tradeoff in Barangay Poblacion in Bongao, the capital town of Tawi-Tawi.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of PDEA-BARMM, told reporters here on Sunday that Sampang yielded peacefully when he was cuffed by agents to whom he had sold 50 grams of shabu worth P340,00 during the entrapment operation, planned with the help of tipsters, among them his close relatives.

Policemen had also entrapped and detained on the same day a male dealer, who is said to have links with the allied terrorist groups Dawlah Islamiya and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Wao town, Lanao del Sur.

The sting resulted in the seizure of P408,000 worth of shabu from the suspect whose name was withheld while efforts to validate his links with the Dawlah Islamiya and the BIFF are still underway.

Police Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said on Sunday that the entrapment operation that led to his arrest was jointly initiated by units under the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and the Drug Enforcement Group Special Operations Unit-15 of the Philippine National Police.

The suspect was immediately detained after selling P408,000 worth of shabu to non-uniformed policemen during the entrapment operation in a secluded area in Wao, one of the 39 towns in Lanao del Sur.