3 ‘slippery’ drug suspects fall in Maguindanao buy-bust

DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao—Anti-narcotics agents on Tuesday (Feb. 16) arrested three drug suspects in a buy-bust operation here.

Juvenal Azurin, regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Bangsamoro, said the three fell for a trap laid out by the PDEA using an undercover agent.

The three were lured into selling shabu, or crystal meth, to the undercover agent during the buy-bust operation at the village of Tamontaka before noon on Tuesday on the national highway in the town.

Azurin said the suspects had been “slippery.” “We have tried many times in the past to arrest them through drug buy-bust,” he said.

“Now, our efforts paid off,” Azurin said.

He identified the suspects as Jomelyn Donato, her husband Junmark Donato and Muhamad Palakasi, all residents of Talayan town, Maguindanao.

Seized from the suspects were 200 grams of crystal meth with an estimated market value of P1.36 million, according to Azurin.

Authorities also seized their mobile phones and a Suzuki mini van.

TSB