P3.4-M ‘shabu’ seized, suspect arrested in Tawi-Tawi buy-bust

COTABATO CITY – Anti-narcotics operatives arrested a high-value target, seizing P3.4 million worth of suspected shabu from him during a drug buy-bust operation in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi on Wednesday night.

Abraham Solon Kalim, head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM) Tawi-Tawi provincial office, identified the suspect as Mahadir Arabani Udja, 28, a resident of Barangay Silubog, Bongao.

A high-value target, Udja was immediately arrested after he handed over the alleged shabu to an undercover agent in Barangay Tubig Tanah during the entrapment operation at about 8 p.m.

Article continues after this advertisement

READ: P20.4-M ‘shabu’ netted off Tawi-Tawi waters

FEATURED STORIES

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

Joint operatives from PDEA, Philippine Marines, and the Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit (PDEU) recovered 10 sachets of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride weighing 500 grams with a value of P3.4 million.

Kalim lauded the operational support from members of the 4th Marine Rifle Battalion under Lt. Colonel Richard Malabanan, Tawi-Tawi police provincial director Colonel Byron Alatog, and Bongao municipal police chief Colonel Roy Zantua.

The operation came two days after PDEA-Tawi-Tawi also seized P20.4 million worth of suspected shabu during a drug buy-bust in the waters off Bongao. 

The previous operation led to the arrest of an alleged big-time drug peddler, identified as Sheik Sahid Basa Abdulla, who was injured when the drug deal turned violent after he and his cohorts opened fire on approaching lawmen. /coa