P1.3-M worth of shabu seized in Maguindanao del Norte police operation

COTABATO CITY — Plainclothes policemen confiscated P1.3 million worth of shabu from a trafficker during an entrapment operation in Barangay Pigkalagan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte on Thursday, April 17.

Local officials and traditional Moro elders in Barangay Pigkalagan, located near the border of Maguindanao del Norte and Cotabato provinces, confirmed on Friday, April 18, that the drug dealer caught in the sting, 35-year-old Orak Makaguiling Saparudin, is now in police custody.

Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (PRO-BAR), said the suspect was immediately arrested after selling 200 grams of shabu worth P1.3 million to non-uniformed policemen during a sting operation in Barangay Pigkalagan. The operation was planned with the assistance of Moro community leaders.

The successful operation, which resulted in the arrest of Saparudin and the confiscation of the drugs, was jointly carried out by personnel from PRO-BAR’s Regional Drug Enforcement Unit, led by Lt. Col. Jackson Lopez, and the Sultan Kudarat Municipal Police Station, headed by Lt. Col. Esmael Madin.

Macapaz added that the Maguindanao del Norte Provincial Police Office also provided crucial support for the operation.

Besides shabu, the police team that arrested Saparudin also impounded his motorcycle, which he reportedly used to transport drugs to contacts in far-flung barangays in Sultan Kudarat and nearby Cotabato City, the capital of the Bangsamoro region.