Drug peddler arrested in Maguindanao del Sur

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Local officials foiled an attempt by a trafficker from a far-flung province to deliver P340,000 worth of shabu to a contact in Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Maguindanao del Sur on Friday, November 15.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told reporters on Saturday that the now detained Kenny Canasa, a resident of Padada town in the faraway Davao del Sur province in Region 11.

He was intercepted by members of a local multi-sector anti-drug council while on his way to Barangay Nunangan in Datu Anggal Midtimbang, bringing with him 50 grams of shabu, costing P340,000, he was to sell to a contact in the area.

The barangay and municipal drug councils in Datu Anggal Midtimbang were jointly organized by PDEA-BARMM and units of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

Maguindanao del Sur Vice Gov. Nathaniel Midtimbang, a resident of Datu Anggal Midtimbang and had served as mayor in the municipality for three consecutive terms, said he is grateful to barangay officials in Nunangan who immediately detained Canasa when they learned of his supposed sale of shabu to a local resident, now subject of a manhunt by the local police, members of the Municipal Peace and Order Council and personnel of the Army’s 1st Mechanized Battalion.

Castro said Canasa was immediately turned over by the Datu Anggal Midtimbang local government unit to PDEA-BARMM and is now locked in a detention facility, awaiting prosecution for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.