2 Maguindanao Drug Peddlers Yield P1.7-M Shabu

DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao — After a week-long surveillance operation along the national highways here, anti-narcotics operatives on Wednesday evening arrested two suspected big-time drug peddlers and seized P1.7 million worth of prohibited drugs during a law enforcement operation.

“They (suspects) belonged to a big-time illegal drug group operating in Maguindanao that supplies drugs to as far as South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and other nearby provinces,” said Juvenal Azurin, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) director in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Nabbed were Mohamidin Ambak Sandigo, 28, market security guard and a resident of this town; and Sammy Ali Panalangin, 23, motorcycle mechanic and a resident of Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Maguindanao.

Azurin said at past 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, a poseur-buyer and the suspects agreed for the purchase of PHP5,000 worth of illegal drugs and with the exchange to take place along the national highway in Barangay Kurintem here.

“As soon as the suspects handed over the illegal stuff to a PDEA agent, they were arrested,” Azurin said, adding that a third drug peddler eluded arrest by running towards a populated area along the national highway.

Seized from the arrested suspects were five huge sachets of shabu with an estimated market value of PHP1.7-million, a mobile phone used in the illegal transaction and two motorbikes without license plates.

Azurin said the law enforcement operation was participated in by the Army’s 90th Infantry Battalion, local police force, Maguindanao Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit, and Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council (BADAC) of Kurintem.

Charges for violation of Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) are readied against the suspects, who are now detained at the PDEA-ARMM detention facility in Cotabato City. (PNA)