Ex-barangay exec dead, 2 nabbed in Lanao Sur PDEA operation

COTABATO CITY— Anti-narcotics agents shot dead an uncooperative former barangay councilor and arrested his two cohorts in an entrapment operation in Wao, Lanao del Sur Wednesday.

Christian Frivaldo, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told reporters Friday that their agents and policemen were forced to neutralize Samanodin Pangnalan after he drew a pistol when he sensed that he and his two companions had sold shabu to non-uniformed government operatives disguised as drug dependents.

The two accomplices of Pangnalan, Norma Macalaba and Jamel Base, are now detained. They will be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, with the P102,000-worth shabu confiscated from them as evidence.

Pangnalan was a former barangay kagawad of Kilikili East inWao, where he, Macalaba and Base reportedly operated a clandestine drug den.

Frivaldo said the entrapment operation, assisted by the Wao Municipal Police Station, was premised on reports by local government officials about their drug trafficking activities in the municipality.