COTABATO CITY – Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi lauded agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM) for the arrest of a sexagenarian and confiscation of suspected shabu with an estimated street value of PHP5.1 million on Friday afternoon.
“Congratulations!” Guiani-Sayadi said to PDEA-BARMM Director Juvenal Azurin and his men who conducted the 5 p.m. buy-bust operation along Notre Dame Avenue that led to the arrest of Sittie Omar Luman, 65, of Guindulungan, Maguindanao.
Luman’s arrest also led to the seizure of some 15 huge sachets of suspected shabu valued at PHP5.1 million.
“We were also quite surprised that a 65-year-old woman would get herself involved in the illegal drug trade,” Azurin said.
Anti-narcotics operatives, backed by police and soldiers, arrested Luman after she handed over several sachets of shabu to an undercover agent along Notre Dame Avenue in Barangay Rosary Heights 3.
A certain Lando, the car driver and accomplice of Luman, is now the subject of a PDEA follow-up operation after having eluded arrest.
Hours earlier on the same day, PDEA agents also arrested a suspected drug trafficker in another anti-drug sting in Buluan, Maguindanao.
The agents seized from Jaher Guiapal suspected shabu with an estimated street value of PHP136,000 in Barangay Poblacion, Buluan.
Guiapal, 40, a resident in the area, was arrested after he sold 20 grams of the drug to an undercover operative of PDEA-BARMM during the 4 p.m. anti-drug operation.
Also recovered from him were marked money and a mobile phone he used in illegal drug transactions.
Both Luman and Guiapal were detained at the PDEA-BARMM headquarters here while charges for violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 were being readied against them. (PNA)