6 nabbed in Maguindanao drug bust

COTABATO CITY – Six drug suspects, including a couple, were arrested during an anti-drug operation in Maguindanao last Friday, resulting in the recovery of P16,000 worth of illegal drugs, anti-narcotics agents said Sunday.

Anthony Naive, senior agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), said that among those arrested was a certain Mariam Acob Buyok, an alleged drug peddler arrested in 2014 who had already spent three years in jail.

PDEA agents thought that Buyok had already fully reformed after her ordeal but she “went back to her old ways as confirmed (during the raid),” Naive said.

He said the entrapment operation was carried out in Sultan Kudarat town of Maguindanao after three weeks of surveillance operation.

A drug den that the suspects used for their regular pot sessions was also dismantled in Purok Warda, Barangay Katuli also of Sultan Kudarat, a town just a few kilometers away from Cotabato City.

“PDEA undercover agents have been monitoring the drug group’s illegal activities,” Naive said.

Also arrested were Mariam’s husband Thoks, Mustapha Arnan Enggio, Alabazzar Tadlas Enggio, Monser Manibpel Karim and Pipo Brah Buyok.

Seized were 20 grams of suspected shabu (crystal meth).

The six suspects are now detained at the PDEA lock-up cell in the BARMM, facing charges for violation of Republic Act 9165, also known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

JE