P.9 million shabu seized in Maguindanao del Norte

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Police seized P985,728 worth of shabu from a dealer during a sting in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte on Monday.

Amir Kasim Upam was shot and wounded in the abdomen by a policeman when he pulled out a gun after sensing that he had sold 144 grams of shabu, costing P985,728, to an undercover police team in Barangay Poblacion.

Brig. Gen. Romeo Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters yesterday that the sting operation that resulted in Upam’s arrest was planned by operatives of the Sultan Kudarat Municipal Police Office, led by Lt. Col. Esmael Madin.

The plot was to catch Upam in Barangay Salimbao in Sultan Kudarat. But the operation was carried out in the town proper of Datu Odin Sinsuat instead, as suggested by Upam and a companion, a certain Ricky.

Ricky escaped while about to be frisked and cuffed by combined police personnel under Madin and agents led by his counterpart in the town’s police force, Lt. Col. Samuel Roy Subsuban.

Macapaz said Madin and Subsuban would cooperate in prosecuting Upam, now in a hospital guarded by police, for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.