P3.4M worth ‘shabu’ seized in Marawi City PDEA operation
COTABATO CITY — Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) seized P3.4 million worth of “shabu” from a dealer entrapped in Marawi City on Tuesday, a day after two drug suspects were shot dead in another buy-bust operation in Tawi-Tawi.
Gil Cesario P. Castro, director of the PDEA-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Arham Hadji Omar Alim was arrested Tuesday afternoon in Barangay Marawi Poblacion in Marawi City after allegedly dropping off half a kilo of shabu worth P3.4 million to poseur-buyers.
Mr. Castro said the sting was the result of tips about the suspect’s alleged drug-peddling activities from Lanao del Sur provincial officials and Muslim religious leaders in Marawi City.
He said two other suspected drug peddlers suffered a more damning fate on Monday when they delivered P340,000 worth of shabu to Barangay Libayuran in Panglima Sugala, Tawi-Tawi.
The PDEA regional chief said Akmad Munib Usman and Gorrie Sajili Usman decided to pull out their guns and start firing upon sensing they walked into a drug sting.
“In a situation like that, our agents and policemen helping them stage entrapment operations have no way but to fight back to protect themselves,” said Mr. Castro, who confirmed the death of the two suspects. — John Felix M. Unson
