P680K worth shabu seized from dealer linked to BIFF

COTABATO CITY — A police team on Sunday seized P680,000 worth of shabu from a dealer, said to have links with local terrorists, who jumped into a river and swam away when he sensed he was dealing with non-uniformed policemen out to catch him in Maguindanao del Norte. 

The runaway target of the entrapment operation led by Lt. Col. Esmael Madin, police chief of Sultan Kudarat municipality in Maguindanao del Norte, a certain Jowi, who is a Maguindanaon, is now subject of a manhunt aided by local officials 

Barangay officials had told personnel of the Sultan Kudarat Municipal Police Station and reporters to look into the seeming connection of Jowi, also known by aliases Abu "Amir" and "Abu Muktar," with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, known for providing sanctuary to drug traffickers in exchange for money.

Madin’s team, supported by the agents of the National Bureau of Investigation and different units of the Police Regional Police Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and personnel of the Cotabato City Police Station 1, were supposed to entrap Jowi near a bridge in Barangay Salimbao in Sultan Kudarat, but the supposed sting went awry when he noticed that he had sold P680,000 worth of shabu to non-uniformed policemen.

Jowi jumped into the river under the bridge and swam downstream, leaving behind the shabu he turned over to Madin’s subordinates disguised as drug dependents.

Madin said that they will work with barangay officials aware of the suspect’s drug peddling activities in filing a criminal case against him in absentia.