Officials destroy P55M worth of shabu seized in BARMM operations

COTABATO CITY — Officials of law enforcement agencies destroyed P55 million worth of confiscated shabu in a power generation incinerator of a private cornstarch factory in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte on Wednesday, November 6.

The symbolic destruction of some nine kilos of shabu at the power plant of the Lamsan Incorporated in Crossing Simuay in Sultan Kudarat was led by Gil Cesario Castro, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, local officials and Cotabato City’s prosecutor, Mariam April Mastura.

Castro told reporters who covered the event that the shabu that he and Mastura and officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region destroyed were seized during PDEA-BARMM and police operations in the past 24 months.

“We are thankful to the local government units in all four corners of the Bangsamoro region and the Bangsamoro regional police for supporting our anti-narcotics campaign in the autonomous region,” Castro said.

BARMM covers the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato.

PDEA agents told reporters at the sideline of Wednesday’s activity at the compound of the Lamsan Incorporated in Sultan Kudarat that local executives in BARMM have supported extensively their entrapment operations, many of which were laid based on their tips about drug trafficking activities of their own constituents.

Castro said they are also grateful to units of the Philippine Army and the Philippine Marines for providing manpower support whenever they embark on anti-illegal drug stings in remote and critical areas in the autonomous region.