Another Lanao Sur village official nabbed over drugs

COTABATO CITY — After weeks of surveillance operations, anti-narcotics operatives arrested a Lanao del Sur village councilman and two others during an anti-drug operation in Parang, Maguindanao on Thursday evening.

Juvenal Azurin, regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency - Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-ARMM), said the 9:30 p.m. buy-bust in front of a gasoline station in Barangay Poblacion Parang also resulted in the seizure of PHP6.8-million worth of “shabu”.

Azurin identified the arrested individuals as Ronnie Maruhom, a village councilman in Malabang town, Lanao del Sur, and Risoli Maruhom and Samsudin Kamid, also residents of the same town.

“We received a tip about an impending transport of illegal drugs from Lanao del Sur,” Azurin told reporters here Friday, referring to the buy-bust operation.

He said a PDEA agent posed as a “highly-interested buyer” of a kilogram of shabu and negotiated with the suspects through mobile phone and agreed to meet between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Thursday.

Prior to the arrival of the suspects, a team of PDEA agents and provincial and municipal police personnel already positioned themselves around the gas station, Azurin said.

After one of the suspects handed over the illegal drugs and received the PHP2-million worth of buy-bust money, anti-narcotics agents quickly collared the three men.

Seized from them were 1 kg. of suspected shabu with an estimated market value of PHP6.8 million, a sports utility vehicle, and a paper bag that contained one genuine PHP1,000 bill on top of other photocopied PHP1,000 bills used by the PDEA in the buy-bust transaction.

Azurin said the suspects did not resist arrest and were not armed at the time of the incident. “They were surprised to find out they were dealing with a PDEA agent,” he added.