ARRESTED. Drug suspects Kenny Pulalon, and his sister Fhai, were both handcuffed following a drug bust operation in Maguindanao on June 12, 2020. The seized illegal drugs (inset) have an estimated street value of PHP2.8 million. (Photo courtesy of PDEA-BARMM)
COTABATO CITY – Acting on a tip from relatives, anti-narcotics agents arrested a brother-sister duo and seized some PHP2.8-million worth of suspected shabu during a drug buy-bust operation in Datu Odin Sinsuat Friday.
Juvenal Azurin, regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM), identified the suspects as Kenny Pulalon, 39, and his sister Fhai, 30, both of Barangay Taviran, Datu Odin Sinsuat.
PDEA-BARMM agents, backed by police and soldiers in plainclothes, immediately arrested the duo after they handed over nine huge sachets of shabu at 10 a.m. to an undercover agent in fish landing area beside Tamontaka river.
PDEA agents seized around 450 grams of shabu in nine sachets, mobile phones, and “boodle money” used in the transaction.
Azurin told reporters that the suspects’ relatives provided the information leading to the entrapment operation.
The arrest of the Pulalons came after PDEA-BARMM agents arrested on Wednesday big-time drug peddler Jordan Rakim in Barangay Pinguiaman of the same municipality.
Rakim, whom Azurin alleged is a member of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) operating in Maguindanao, yielded 500 grams of shabu worth PHP3.4 million.
Azurin said investigators are still determining if the stuff seized from the Pulalons and those from Rakim belonged to one source.
“We are trying to determine the links, they could be members of big-time drug syndicates operating in Maguindanao and nearby provinces,” Azurin told reporters in an interview.
The siblings are now detained at PDEA custodial facility in Cotabato City. (PNA)
