4 nabbed in separate drug busts in North Cotabato

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Combined policemen and soldiers arrested four large-scale drug traffickers in a series of raids before dawn Wednesday in Kabacan town in North Cotabato.

 

Operatives of the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion (IB) and the provincial police office recovered from the four suspects about P1 million worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride, most known as shabu, four unlicensed handguns and explosives.

 

In a report to the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Camp Siongco in Datu Odin town in Maguindanao, the 7th IB said the arrested suspects had been turned over by the raiding teams to police custodians while investigators are preparing criminal charges against them.

 

Senior Superintendent Alex Tagum, North Cotabato’s provincial police director, declined to identify the arrested suspects pending outcome of continuing manhunt of their accomplices in nearby towns.

 

He said police and Army agents are still tracking down their cohorts based on initial information extracted from them by investigators.

 

Tagum said they are to charge the four suspects with violation of the Philippine Dangerous Drugs Act and illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

 

He said the suspects were involved in large-scale shabu distribution in Kabacan and nearby towns in North Cotabato and in Maguindanao.

 

Tagum said he is grateful to vigilant Kabacan residents for helping determine the exact identities of the four drug dealers and their whereabouts.

 

“We will be launching more anti-narcotics operations soon with the help of local government units and our counterparts in the Philippine Army,” Tagum said.