COTABATO CITY — Bangsamoro police have been deployed to seaports in Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi in a bid to recapture seven escapees from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s (PDEA) detention facility in Zamboanga City.

Brig. Gen. Prexy D. Tanggawohn, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), said on Tuesday that plainclothes agents have been positioned at seaports in efforts to intercept the seven individuals charged with trading illegal drugs.

Radio reports here quoted Maharani Gadaoni-Tosoc, director of PDEA Region 9, as saying that they have forwarded photos of the seven escapees to different units in the Bangsamoro region now helping track them down.

“Our efforts to prevent them from possibly getting into Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi are coordinated closely with the provincial governments in these three provinces,” said Mr. Tanggawohn.

He identified the seven as Wilson I. Sahiban of Indanan, Sulu; Junjimar H. Aiyob of Upper Patibulan in Panamao, Sulu; Albadir M. Ajijul of Isabela City in Basilan; and four others from different barangays in Zamboanga City — Muhajiran R. Jumlah, Amil Khan M. Abubasar, Jimmy A. Sahibol, and Kerwin M. Abdilla.

They were arrested in separate entrapment operations in recent weeks and have each been charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Ms. Gadaoni-Tosoc said the detainees allegedly escaped by breaking through the ceiling. — John Felix M. Unson

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR