COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Government agents killed an alleged shabu trafficker and arrested four other alleged drug den operators in an entrapment operation Thursday in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.
Juvenal Azurin, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Friday agents were forced to shoot Angkino Mamalangkas dead when he pulled out a grenade as they frisked him and his four companions.
The five had been caught selling shabu to undercover agents.
Mamalangkas and the four others — Saidamen Mutalib, Johaimir Utto, Edito Dela Cruz and Salupudin Maslamama — together operated a clandestine drug den in SPDA Village in Barangay Semba, Datu Odin Sinsuat, PDEA-BARMM said.
A number of shabu dealers, among them a public school teacher, in Datu Odin Sinsuat town were arrested in a series of operations over the past six months.
Azurin said relatives of Mutalib, Utto, Dela Cruz and Maslamama who informed the PDEA-BARM of their involvement in drugs.
He said PDEA-BARMM agents seized more than P100,000 worth of shabu in the arrest.
The four suspects were arrested less than two weeks since PDEA-BARMM agents nabbed Merlyn Alama, Sharon Ansaw, Lucky Love Cantiver and Jocelyn Bangkulit for operating a drug den in a nearby barangay in the same municipality.