4 shabu dealers die in clash with policemen in Tawi-Tawi

COTABATO CITY— Policemen shot dead four uncooperative traffickers they were supposed to arrest after selling P476,000 worth of shabu to villagers in Barangay Luuk Pandan in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi on Monday.

Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Wednesday morning that patrolling personnel of the Bongao Municipal Police Station were to arrest the suspects whom they saw turning over something to three men, but neutralized them instead when two of them pulled out pistols and opened fire.

The police team that figured in the shootout eventually discovered that the package they found in the scene of the encounter contained 70 grams of shabu.

Policemen were dispatched to Barangay Luuk Pandan after villagers reported to the local police via text message the presence of the four men in the area, acting suspiciously.

In a report to Tanggawohn late Tuesday, the Tawi-Tawi Provincial Police Office stated that the three supposed buyers of shabu that the four slain suspects dealt with had escaped, now subject of an extensive hunt.

The contrabands shabu and two pistols found beside the cadavers of two of the four suspects who perished in the brief shootout are now under the custody of Bongao MPS.

The incident in Tawi-Tawi preceded the seizure of P426,000 worth of shabu from a dealer in a police entrapment operation on Monday in Barangay Cadayonan II in Marawi City, capital of Lanao del Sur, also a component province of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The suspect, said to have links with the Dawlah Islamiya terrorist group, was immediately arrested and detained after selling more than 60 grams of shabu to non-uniformed personnel of the Marawi City Police Office, disguised as drug dependents.

Tanggawohn said the suspect is now detained, to be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.