Drug dealers linked to terrorists busted in Maguindanao del Sur

COTABATO CITY — Plainclothes policemen seized P170,000 worth of crystal meth (shabu) from two traffickers reportedly linked to two local terror groups, entrapped in Barangay Brar in Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Maguindanao del Sur at about dusk Sunday.

Brig. Gen. Romeo J. Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Monday that the duo, Patrick S. Bitol and Rakim O. Dumamba, are now detained, awaiting prosecution for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Local officials and relatives of Mr. Bitol and Mr. Dumamba told reporters on Monday that they both shared fractions of their earnings to leaders of the Dawlah Islamiya and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in exchange for their open peddling of shabu in secluded areas where members of both groups are holding out. — John Felix M. Unson