P3.6-M worth of shabu seized in PDEA Lanao del Sur sting

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Anti-narcotics agents seized P3.6 million worth of shabu from a former member of the now-defunct Dawlah Islamiya terror group, entrapped in Taraka, Lanao del Sur on Thursday, October 15.

Local executives and members of the multi-sector Lanao del Sur Provincial Peace and Order Council told reporters on Friday that the known shabu dealer Faiz Moin Tampogao is now in the custody of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, awaiting prosecution in court for trafficking of narcotics.

Tampogao, who hails from Barangay Dilausan in Maguing town in Lanao del Sur, is also known in the province for his peddling of dried marijuana supplied by a few remnants of the now inactive Dawlah Islamiya, propagated in forested hinterlands close to Maguindanao del Norte province.

George Paul Alcovindas, regional director of PDEA-BARMM, said on Friday that the suspect was immediately detained by their agents and personnel of different units in Lanao del Sur of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region after selling to them shabu in a secluded spot in the Masolun area in Taraka.

PDEA-BARMM agents and policemen had confiscated 533.7 grams of shabu from Tampogao, costing P3.6 million, to be used as evidence in prosecuting him in court for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Alcovindas said the entrapment operation that led to the arrest of the suspect and confiscation of P3.6 million worth of shabu from him was carried out with the support of local executives in Taraka, one of the 39 towns in Lanao del Sur, and traditional Maranaw community leaders in the municipality.