Barangay official, couple nabbed in Maguindanao drug raids

Shabu (CDN FILE PHOTO/ CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

COTABATO CITY — A Maguindanao barangay kagawad (village councilor) – who had been under surveillance by anti-narcotics operatives for peddling and using prohibited drugs – was arrested early Wednesday.

Anti-narcotics operatives also arrested a couple for allegedly operating a drug den in a residential area in Cotabato City on Tuesday evening.

Chief Inspector Achmad Alibonga, police chief of Datu Odin Sinsuat (DOS), Maguindanao, said Razul Diocolano Imam, 29, a councilor of Barangay Banobo in Sultan Kudarat town, did not resist arrest when operatives of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-ARMM) and local policemen swooped his other home in Barangay Awang, in Datu Odin Sinsuat.

Alibonga said one big sachet of methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu” with a market value of about PHP20,000 and marked money were seized from Imam.

Imam will be charged with violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

At 6 p.m. Tuesday, PDEA agents also arrested a couple here for allegedly operating a drug den patronized even by minors.

Former soldier Rogelio Bolo and Leilah Legita-Bolo were caught in the act of selling methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) to a PDEA agent during the buy-bust operation.

Bryan Babang, PDEA-ARMM director, said the operation against the couple was launched after two weeks of surveillance operation. Seized from them were several sachets of shabu.  SFM

Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao (Google maps)