2 more shabu dealers linked to Mindanao terrorists busted

COTABATO CITY — Two shabu peddlers suspected of sharing earnings to violent religious extremists fell in separate entrapment operations in two adjoining towns in Maguindanao del Norte on Wednesday.

Plainclothes policemen first arrested Kenny Malagel in Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat after selling P300,000 worth of shabu to anti-narcotics operatives disguised as drug dependents.

The sting that led to Malagel’s arrest was laid by officials and personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station with the help of civilian informants privy to his shabu peddling activities.

Two of Malagel's relatives in the hostile Salibo town in Maguindanao del Sur had told reporters that he is related to three commanders in the province of the Dawlah Islamiya, which is operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Several hours after Malagel was arrested in Datu Odin Sinsuat, policemen led by Lt. Col. Esmael Madin entrapped shabu dealer Piping Guialodin Makmod in Barangay Narra in Sultan Kudarat in Maguindanao del Norte, an operation that resulted in the confiscation from him of P2,000 worth of shabu and a .45 caliber pistol.

Makmod's companion, initially identified only as Balundo, managed to run away when he sensed that they had sold their illegal merchandise to non-uniformed members of the Sultan Kudarat municipal police force led by  Madin.

Barangay officials said Balundo's real name is Zahir Ameruddin, a distant relative of Kagui Karialan, leader of one of three factions in the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Madin, who is Sultan Kudarat's municipal police chief, said the entrapment operation was launched after relatives of Makmod reported his distribution of shabu in secluded villages in the municipality.

Investigators and intelligence agents in the Datu Odin Sinsuat and Sultan Kudarat police forces are now validating reports about the connections of Malagel and Makmod with the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya and the BIFF, known for coddling drug traffickers in exchange for money.