3 policemen nabbed in Maguindanao drug buy-bust

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Three police officers fell in an entrapment operation by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Parang town in Maguindanao on Wednesday.

The operation that led to the arrest of Patrolman Sandiali Mangundacan Manalao, S/Sgt. Fahmi Bangon Como, and M/Sgt. Monjel Nassal Aradais was a joint law-enforcement mission of the PDEA-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Region.

Officials of PDEA-BARMM told reporters the suspects were arrested while about to sell methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) to an undercover agent in a sting operation in Barangay Nituan in Parang town, Maguindanao.

Barangay Nituan is in the same town where Camp SK Pendatun, the command headquarters of the Bangsamoro regional police, is located.

Juvenal Azurin, director of PDEA-BARMM, said senior officials of the Bangsamoro regional police helped them plan the operation that resulted in the arrest of Manalao, Como and Aradais, all assigned in Lanao del Sur, a component province of BARMM.

Azurin said residents tipped the PDEA-BARMM off about the drug trafficking activities of the three police officers.

The joint PDEA-police team found firearms, vehicle license plates, police identification cards and uniforms in their vehicle, a Red Toyota Innova.

The suspects will be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.