3.4 million worth of shabu from sibling dealers in Cotabato City

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Anti-narcotics agents seized half a kilo of shabu, costing P3.4 million, from two male siblings entrapped in Barangay Poblacion 6 in this city on Monday, August 3, in an operation led with the help of local executives and traditional Moro leaders.

City and barangay officials who helped plot the entrapment operation told reporters on Tuesday that Kaharudin Taya, 27, and his 26-year-old brother, Yasser Taya, are now both in the custody of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, awaiting prosecution in court.

Edgar Jubay, director of PDEA-BARMM, said the duo was immediately frisked and detained by their agents and policemen from units of the Cotabato City Police Office, under Col. Jibin Bongcayao, after selling them shabu in Barangay Poblacion 6.

Besides the P3.4 million worth of shabu, PDEA-BARMM agents also impounded the green multicab of the suspects that they used in drug trafficking activities in different barangays in Cotabato City and in nearby Sultan Kudarat and Datu Odin Sinsuat towns in Maguindanao del Norte, one of the five provinces in BARMM.

PDEA-BARMM agents and policemen who entrapped the two suspects told reporters that the operation that led to their arrest was premised on reports about their illegal activities that confidential informants had relayed to barangay officials and to the office of Cotabato City Mayor Bruce Matabalao.

Matabalao, who is presiding chairperson of the multi-sector Cotabato City Peace and Order Council, said he shall flex his authority and connections in helping PDEA-BARMM prosecute the two suspects for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.