PDEA-12 agents arrest couple operating drug den in Cotabato

COTABATO CITY —Anti-narcotics agents seized P91,800 worth of shabu from a couple operating a drug den in Barangay Cabaruyan in Libungan, Cotabato. They were arrested along with six others on Friday.

Aileen Lovitos, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-12, said on Monday that Rafael Cadungog Batomalaque, his wife, Catherine, and their cohort, Joseph Librea Andresio, are now detained.

The entrapment operation also resulted in the arrest of Ken Escropolo Cadungog, Romelo Nielles Demonteverde, Noel Andrada Bayona, Japhet Diaz Ignacio and Crisanto Lariosa Dialogo, caught in the act of sniffing shabu in a room inside the drug den of the couple.

The operation that resulted in their arrest, assisted by the Libungan Municipal Police Station and the unit of the Highway Patrol Group in Cotabato province, was launched after the PDEA-12 received information from barangay officials about the presence of a drug den in Cabayuran.

Lovitos said Batomalaque and his spouse, Andresio, Cadungog, Demonteverde, Bayona, Ignacio and Dialogo had been charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.