Drug den in Lamitan City padlocked, 3 operators jailed

COTABATO CITY — Anti-narcotics operatives clamped down three drug den operators in an entrapment operation in Lamitan City on Monday night, September 16.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, announced on Wednesday that the three suspects, Jerry De Leon Macahilos, Ritchie Mojad Reyes and Marjonie Ali Isa, are now locked in a detention facility, awaiting prosecution.

The three of them were immediately arrested after selling P34,000 worth of shabu to agents of PDEA-BARMM and policemen in a tradeoff in the premises of their drug den in Purok Fidel in Barangay Malinis in Lamitan City late Monday.

Castro said the operation that led to the arrest of Macahilos, Reyes, and Isa was laid with the help of the office of Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay, officials of the Lamitan City Police Station and the Basilan Provincial Police Office.

The drug den of the three suspects had been padlocked by community watchmen and barangay officials, who reported to PDEA-BARMM their shabu peddling activities, enabling the agency to initiate the sting that led to their arrest. 

Castro told reporters the PDEA-BARMM is grateful to Furigay, chairperson of the multi-sector Lamitan City Peace and Order Council, and all elected officials of the 45 barangays under his jurisdiction for having been overtly supportive of their anti-narcotics campaign, enabling them to entrap no fewer than 10 local shabu traffickers in the city in the past three years.