5-member South Cotabato drug ring busted

POLOMOLOK, South Cotabato — Anti-narcotics agents shut a clandestine drug den here early Saturday and clamped down the five-member gang behind its operation.

Naravy Duquiatan, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-12, said agents also seized from the suspects P35, 360 worth of shabu.

Drug den operator Mary Joy Ostaga and cohorts Jocelyn Albaño, Jojean Saul, Ariel Felisida and Ronald Lascuna are now detained.

They shall be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, according to Duquiatan.

The five suspects were entrapped together before dawn Saturday right in their lair in Abrea Homes in Barangay Cannery, Polomolok.

Duquiatan said Saul is the supplier of shabu that the group peddled to their contacts here and nearby towns in South Cotabato and in Alabel, Sarangani.

The arrest of the five drug dealers was preceded by the entrapment on Wednesday in Tantangan, South Cotabato of tricycle driver Leo Bermudez, long wanted for distribution of shabu to local contacts.

He was nabbed after selling P40,000 worth of shabu to non-uniformed PDEA-12 agents in Barangay Poblacion in Tantangan.

Tantangan is not too distant from Koronadal City, South Cotabato’s provincial capital.

Bermudez was arrested after turning over P40,000 worth of shabu to non-uniformed agents disguised as drug dependents.

Duquiatan said Bermudez is now detained, awaiting prosecution.