2 cops to face drug charges in Sultan Kudarat

SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines - Authorities will file today, January 25, criminal charges against two policemen and a member of the Philippine Marine Corps arrested on Saturday while in the act of selling shabu to plainclothes anti-narcotics operatives.

Drug peddlers PO1 Hamed Karon, PO3 Benny Uy and Marine Sgt. Sherwin Aregado, were nabbed in a dragnet in Sultan Kudarat’s seaside Lebak town, staged by the local police and members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

Also arrested in the operation were their cohorts, Michael John Besana, Ronaldo Hierro and Akmad Kabagani.

CIDG investigators said Aregado belong to one of the battalions under the Lebak-based 1st Marine Brigade, which has jurisdiction over the municipality and other coastal towns in Sultan Kudarat and in west of Maguindanao province.

The officer-in-charge of CIDG for Region 12, Chief Inspector Elmer Guevarra, said agents recovered from the arrested suspects 17 sachets of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride), drug-sniffing paraphernalia and cash.

The CIDG learned of the illegal activities of the suspects from barangay folks and local officials.

Guevarra said the suspects are now clamped down in a CIDG detention facility in Gen. Santos City, awaiting prosecution.