ILLEGAL DRUGS. Personnel of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency – Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM) account the PHP400,000 worth of suspected shabu following a buy-bust operation in Cotabato City on Thursday (Feb. 23, 2023). Among the three arrested suspects is an active police officer of the Police Regional Office-BARMM. (Photo courtesy of PDEA-BARMM)
COTABATO CITY – A police officer and two others were arrested during an anti-drug operation here Thursday evening.
Agent Jocelyn Mary, spokesperson of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM), said Pat. Jassim Aking and his two colleagues were nabbed in a buy-bust operation along San Isidro Street, Barangay Rosary Heights 10.
An undercover agent managed to buy PHP340,000 worth of suspected shabu from the suspects inside a suspected drug den, Mary said.
She identified the two other arrested suspects as Sindatu Macmud and Fatima Usman.
"We recovered 11 sachets containing about PHP400,000 worth of shabu,” Mary said, adding that a subsequent search also resulted in the recovery of mobile phones that the suspects used in the drug transaction, including a multicab vehicle.
“We have been following him (Aking) for the past few months; he was placed under surveillance for so long,” Mary said of the arrested police officer.
Charges are being prepared against the suspects, who are now detained at the PDEA-ARMM detention facility in this city.
This month alone, the PDEA-BARMM managed to seize more than PHP4 million worth of shabu and arrested at least 10 persons in separate anti-drug operations in this city and the towns in Sultan Kudarat and Kabuntalan, both in Maguindanao del Norte. (PNA)
