PDEA-BARMM agents seize P74.9M worth of marijuana in Tawi-Tawi

COTABATO CITY— Anti-narcotics agents seized 58.4 kilos of dried marijuana worth P74.9 million from two suspected dealers, one of them a Malaysian national, during an entrapment operation in the island town of Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, on Monday morning, January 26.

The two suspects are now in the joint custody of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency–Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Tawi-Tawi Provincial Police Office, whose officials coordinated in planning the marijuana tradeoff in Barangay Pasiagan in Bongao that led to their arrest.

Local executives who supported the entrapment operation told reporters via text messages at noon on Monday that the suspects were arrested by PDEA-BARMM agents after selling 58 kilos of marijuana in Barangay Pasiagan, a beachside area in Bongao, the capital town of Tawi-Tawi.

Benjamin Recites III, director of PDEA-BARMM, said that relatives of the Filipino suspect and friends of his Malaysian accomplice in Tawi-Tawi informed agents about their large-scale marijuana peddling across Mindanao and Metro Manila. This tip enabled authorities to plan the entrapment operation that led to the arrests.

Recites added that the operation was assisted by Gov. Ysmael Ali, chairman of the multi-sector Tawi-Tawi Provincial Peace and Order Council, units of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, the Bongao Municipal Police Station, and the Marine Battalion Landing Team 4 of the Philippine Navy.

Tawi-Tawi municipal and provincial officials told reporters that the two detained suspects have contacts in Metro Manila to whom they supplied marijuana cultivated by villagers on islands in the territorial waters of Indonesia.

Recites said the suspects will be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, with the P74.9 million worth of marijuana confiscated from them serving as evidence.