PDEA agents seize P47.6-M drugs in Tawi-Tawi operation

COTABATO CITY — Anti-narcotics agents seized seven kilos of crystal meth (shabu), costing P47.6 million, from two long-known traffickers entrapped in the island town of Sibutu in Tawi-Tawi on Wednesday.

Municipal officials told reporters via text message on Thursday that the suspects are now both in the joint custody of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM) and the Tawi-Tawi Provincial Police Office.

One of the suspects was injured after running away when he sensed they were selling seven kilos of shabu to PDEA-BARMM agents. He was immediately transported by barangay officials and policemen to a local medical dispensary for treatment.

Edgar T. Jubay, director of PDEA-BARMM, said the operation that resulted in the duo’s arrest, supervised by their provincial team leader, Abraham S. Kalim, was supported extensively by municipal officials and Tawi-Tawi Governor Yshmael I. Sali and units in the province of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region under Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman.

Mr. Jubay said they will use the confiscated P47.6-million shabu as evidence in prosecuting them in court for their criminal offense.

The operation was planned with the help of local executives and traditional Sama and Tausug community leaders, long aware of the large-scale peddling of shabu by the two suspects, now both locked in a police detention facility.

“Part of the credit for the arrest of these two suspects goes to vigilant local executives in Tawi-Tawi, to the military’s Western Mindanao Command, the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and the confidential tipsters who reported their drug trafficking activities to our agents in the province,” Mr. Jubay said. — John Felix M. Unson