2 Cotabato drug suspects arrested, P3.4-M ‘shabu’ seized

BUSTED. The two suspects sit while PDEA agents conduct an accounting of illegal stuff seized from them during a drug buy-bust operation in Cotabato City Thursday, May 4, 2023. (PDEA photo)

COTABATO CITY — Anti-narcotics agents on Thursday arrested two drug peddlers and seized P3.4 million worth of illegal drugs during a buy-bust operation in Barangay Poblacion 8 here.

Jocelyn Mary, speaking for Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM), identified the suspects as Solaiman Mastura Mohammad, 52, and Bayan Mohammad Akmad, 35, both of Cotabato City.

They were nabbed after they sold  illegal drugs to an undercover agent at 3 p.m. along Diversion Road Kakar, Barangay Poblacion 8.

“We have been trailing these guys for the past few months, they have been within our radar until they were arrested,” Mary said, adding the two belonged to a drug syndicate operating in the BARMM.

Seized from the suspects were 500 grams of “shabu” (crystal meth) with an estimated value of P3.4 million, drug-using items, mobile phones and the marked money used in the transaction.

Now detained at the PDEA detention facility in Cotabato City, the suspects are facing a formal complaint for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

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