Shabu peddler killed, PDEA-BARMM agent hurt in Maguindanao del Sur encounter

COTABATO CITY — Anti-narcotics agents killed a peddler who pulled out a gun and opened fire after he sensed that he would be arrested for selling to them P340,000 worth of shabu in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur on Thursday.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told reporters on Friday morning that their agents were supposed to frisk and cuff Haider Ali Dimacisil after the tradeoff, but neutralized him instead when he provoked a gunfight.

The entrapment operation that resulted in his death was laid with the help of local executives and personnel of the Shariff Aguak Municipal Police Station.

Castro said that the 50 grams of shabu, costing P340,000, seized during the entrapment operation that went awry and left Dimacisil dead and a PDEA-BARMM agent wounded, are now under their custody.

Castro asked reporters not to identify the agent who was hurt in the incident and is now confined in a hospital.

Municipal officials and investigators in the Shariff Aguak MPS are helping the PDEA-BARMM identify the accomplices of Dimacisil in his drug trafficking activities in the municipality.