COTABATO CITY --- Anti-narcotics agents entrapped 11 cohort shabu dealers, linked to remnants of two now defunct southern terror groups, in an operation on Friday, October 9, in Barangay Tumbao in Mangudadatu town in Maguindanao del Sur.
Local executives and Moro datus in Mangudadatu told reporters on Saturday that besides their shabu and marijuana peddling activities, the now detained suspects, Bati Salendab, Samrod Timpolok, Kevin Timpolok, Bryan Daud Uyag, Tundatu Betol, Rudy Anta, Bando Silongan, Mark Cadel, Jimmy Uyag, Datu Puti Amino and Boren Mangandog, also connived in operating a drug den at one spot in Barangay Tumbao.
They were immediately arrested by combined agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Mindanao and policemen after procuring from them shabu during a tradeoff right in their drug den in Purok 5 in Barangay Tumbao.
George Paul Alcovindas, director of PDEA-BARMM, had told reporters that the 11 suspects yielded peacefully when they learned that they had sold shabu to non-uniformed anti-narcotics agents, ready to neutralize them if they resist arrest.
The joint entrapment operation by PDEA-BARMM agents, personnel of the Mangudadatu Municipal Police Station and operatives from different units of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region also led to confiscation from the 11 suspects of P81,600 worth of shabu, drug sniffing paraphernalia and mobile phones bearing the numbers of their accomplices in different towns in Maguindanao del Sur.
Moro community leaders had confirmed to reporters that the 11 Moro men, all longtime traffickers of shabu, also occasionally peddled marijuana supplied to them by remaining members of the now both inactive Dawlah Islamiya and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters who have not availed yet of the joint reconciliation program of PRO-BAR and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division for violent religious extremists.
Alcovindas said they are grateful to the local executives in Mangudadatu and their constituent-barangay officials who informed them about the operation of the 11 suspects of a drug den in the municipality, enabling them to plan the operation that resulted in their arrest, now awaiting prosecution for the violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.