4 nabbed, P510K worth shabu seized in separate police, PDEA operations

COTABATO CITY — Government operatives arrested four drug den operators and seized P510,000 worth of shabu in separate operations in Cotabato City and in nearby Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte in just two days, laid with the help of the local communities.

Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao first busted drug den operator Rabaibani Ali Guiabar and her accomplices, Warren Datukaka Guiapar, Salma Abdullah Angka, and Jobaine Guiabar Pantacan in an entrapment operation in a secluded area in Barangay Rosary Heights 10, Cotabato City at almost midnight Wednesday.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the PDEA-BARMM, announced on Friday that the four suspects were immediately arrested after selling P170,000 worth of shabu to their non-uniformed agents disguised as drug dependents in a tradeoff right in their clandestine drug den.

Castro said the operation that resulted in their arrest was planned with the help of vigilant Moro tipsters, among them Muslim clerics supporting the anti-narcotics campaign of PDEA-BARMM and the Cotabato City Police Office.

Policemen, led by Lt. Col. Esmael Madin, had seized P340,000 worth of shabu from a runaway dealer they were supposed to entrap on Thursday night in Barangay Kabuntalan in Sultan Kudarat town, not too distant from this city.

Madin, chief of the Sultan Kudarat Municipal Police Station, said the shabu trafficker they were supposed to entrap, a certain “Datu,” had scampered away when he sensed he was to sell 50 grams of shabu, costing P340,000, to non-uniformed policemen, leaving his illegal merchandise behind.

Madin said barangay and municipal officials and members of the Islamic religious community in Sultan Kudarat had promised to help them locate the suspect.