3 shabu peddlers operating near Central Mindanao school campuses busted

COTABATO CITY — Policemen arrested three individuals all known for peddling shabu outside school campuses in separate entrapment operations in Central Mindanao over the weekend. 

Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said on Monday that police agents had entrapped two dealers, Born Salik Mangacop, 40, and his 55-year-old female cohort, Koraima Maliga, in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte with the help of confidential informants.

The operation that led to their arrest was premised on reports by local officials about their peddling of shabu near school campuses in Maguindanao del Norte and in Cotabato City.

Tanggawohn said that Mangacop and Maliga voluntarily yielded when they sensed that they sold P5,508 worth of shabu to non-uniformed personnel of the Sultan Kudarat Municipal Police Station, led by Lt. Col. Esmael Madin, during a tradeoff in Sitio Torres in Barangay Limbo, Sultan Kudarat.

Few hours later, a 31-year-old shabu dealer, Tokel Kadatuan, who also reportedly operated near school campuses, fell in a sting laid by policemen in Barangay Poblacion 7 in Midsayap town in Cotabato province in Region 12.

Citing a report from the Cotabato Provincial Police Office, Region 12 police director Brig. Gen. Augustus Placer told reporters on Monday that Kadatuan also did not resist when personnel of the Midsayap Municipal Police Station, led by Lt. Col. John Miridel Calinga, detained him after selling to them P102,000 worth of shabu during the entrapment operation.

Placer said that he is grateful to the mayor of Midsayap, Rolly Sacdalan, and his constituent barangays leaders for helping their municipal police force plan the entrapment of Kadatuan, a resident of Barangay Balanakin in Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur.