COTABATO CITY — Police agents are assisting the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in identifying the accomplices of two drug dealers, described as "big fish," who were arrested with P9.5 million worth of shabu in an entrapment operation in Iligan City on Wednesday, January 22.
The two traffickers, a woman and her male accomplice, were arrested in a sting operation in Barangay San Miguel, Iligan City, by PDEA agents from Regions 9 and 10. They are now detained and will be prosecuted for violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Maharani Gadaoni-Tosoc, director of PDEA-9, told reporters on Friday, January 24, that the operation leading to their arrest and the seizure of 1,400 grams of shabu worth P9.5 million was based on tips from informants in the Zamboanga Peninsula. These informants were aware of the traffickers' large-scale narcotics operations across various Mindanao cities and provinces.
PDEA agents had also impounded their Toyota Fortuner that they reportedly used in transporting shabu from Zamboanga City to different areas in Regions 9 and 10 and in the Bangsamoro region.
Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said their intelligence units in Lanao del Sur and in its capital, Marawi City, which is near Iligan City, are helping agents of the PDEA-9 and 10 identify the cohorts of the two suspects in the province.
Local officials said the two suspects arrested by PDEA-9 agents last Wednesday in Barangay San Miguel, with the assistance of PDEA-10's regional director, Benjamin Gaspi, are known for running a large and well-organized shabu distribution network across cities and provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, as well as in Regions 9 and 10.
“Our units are now trying to identify their contacts in cities and provinces under our jurisdiction,” Macapaz said.