3 drug suspects with a kilo of meth arrested in Maguindanao del Norte

ENTRAPPED. The three suspects after their arrest during entrapment operation by police agents in Barangay Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. —Photo courtesy of Sultan Kudarat MPS

COTABATO CITY, BARMM, Philippines – Three drug peddlers were arrested during a police entrapment operation in Maguindanao del Norte on Friday afternoon.

Lt. Colonel Esmael Madin, municipal police chief of Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte, identified the suspects as Esmael Bendong, Mantawil Saddam, Usop Ampatuan, all residents of Maguindanao del Norte who were caught in possession of a kilo of meth, valued at P6.8 million.

Madin said the trio has been under surveillance for two weeks until they agreed to sell the illegal drugs to an undercover agent in Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.

“We started the transaction and the handover was supposedly in Sultan Kudarat town but suddenly the suspects decided to move the sale in Datu Odin Sinsuat town,” he told reporters.

Apart from meth, seized from the suspects were a Ford Ranger vehicle they used in drug dealing and the marked money used in the transaction.

The suspects are now under police custody while charges are being prepared against them.

It was the second huge haul of meth by the police in the same village of the town since July.

On July 24, Madin and his men entrapped Morsalon Tantong, 31, in Barangay Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat and seized from him P6.8 million worth of meth.

Madin said Tantong first transacted with an undercover agent for a sale in Barangay Simuay, Sultan Kudarat but moved it to Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat town.

The suspect, who hails from Zamboanga del Sur, did not resist arrest, but two of his companions managed to flee.