Maguindanao barangay official turned druggie arrested
Joint elements of the Philippine Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), and Buluan Municipal Police Station collared a drug suspect in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Poblacion, Buluan, Maguindanao the other day.
Reports reaching Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr. identified the suspect as Jahit Guipal, alias “Johnny Long.”
“The operation also resulted in the confiscation of a black pouch containing nine heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets weighing more or less 20 grams and containing white crystalline substances believed to be methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu),” Vinluan noted.
Confiscated from Guipal is the P1,000 bill used as buy-bust money, one bundle of P1,000.00 bills amounting to P14,000, one brown leatherette wallet containing several identification cards, and two analog cellular phones, Vinluan added.
The suspect, a former barangay official in the municipality of Mangudadatu, is also among those included in PDEA’s list of high-value targets in the province.
Guipal and the recovered pieces of evidence are now under the custody of PDEA-BARMM for documentation and proper disposition.
“We will attune all our efforts in upholding our unwavering support to the campaign of the President against the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country,” stressed Vinluan.
“Rest assured that we will continuously cooperate with other law enforcement agencies in the efforts against all forms of lawlessness to curb violence in the western and central areas of Mindanao,” he added.