Cops seize P2-M drugs in Cotabato City operation

COTABATO CITY — Non-uniformed policemen seized P2 million worth of crystal meth (shabu) from four male peddlers entrapped in Barangay Rosary Heights 5 in this city on Sunday.

The suspects were immediately detained by plainclothes policemen, led by Lt. Col. Esmael A. Madin, during the tradeoff.

Brig. Gen. Romeo J. Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters that the entrapment operation was first by laid by Mr. Madin and his subordinate-policemen in Barangay Simuay in nearby Sultan Kudarat, but was done in Barangay Rosary Heights 5 in Cotabato City instead after the suspects requested to meet them there.

Mr. Macapaz said Mr. Madin and Cotabato City’s police director, Col. Jibin Bongcayao, cooperated in overseeing the operation, planned with the help of confidential informants aware of the large-scale peddling of shabu by the suspects in different barangays in Cotabato City and in towns around.

One of the four detained suspects, an adolescent, will be turned over to the Cotabato City Social Welfare Office, according to Mr. Macapaz. — John Felix M. Unson