PDEA agents seize P20M in meth from Sulu village councilman

The illegal stuff seized from a village official in Sulu. (courtesy of PDEA-BARMM)

COTABATO CITY  — A village councilman was arrested, and anti-narcotics agents seized from him more than P20 million worth of meth during a buy-bust operation on Thursday afternoon in Jolo, Sulu.

The suspect, Kaber Jailani Yusop, 46, a councilman of Barangay Lakit, Panamao, Sulu, did not resist arrest, but his accomplice, identified as Weng Najar, managed to elude arrest.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM), said Yusop earlier agreed to sell meth to an undercover agent in Barangay Tulay, Jolo.

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After handing over the illegal stuff to a poseur-buyer, Yusop was immediately arrested, Castro said.

“I commend the efforts of all the operating units who were part of the successful operation. I am grateful for the continued support of the different instrumentalities, local government units, and concerned citizens,” Castro said in a statement.

Recovered from Yusop were three large vacuum-sealed plastic packages of Chinese tea with Chinese characters and labeled Guan Yin Wang, containing meth weighing about three kilos with a standard drug price of ₱20,400,000, the buy-bust money, two mobile phones, a white Honda CRF 150 motorcycle, and various identification cards.

The suspect is now under the custody of Jolo municipal police station while awaiting inquest proceedings for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Castro said the operation was coordinated with the police and military forces in Sulu.