P1-M drugs in house of ex-official

COTABATO CITY -- Antinarcotics agents, backed by police and military personnel, raided on Monday the compound of a former Maguindanao legislative

official and seized some PHP1.3-million worth of shabu.

Juvenal Azurin, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency– Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM), identified the target site of their operation as the compound owned by former Maguindanao 2nd District Assemblyman Sedik Ameril of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao situated in Barangay Manggay, Talitay, Maguindanao.

Seized from one of four houses inside the compound were one big and another small heat-sealed plastic sachets of suspected shabu weighing some 200 grams and valued at PHP1,360,000; used tin foils and three disposable lighters.

Ameril and another suspected associate identified as Mike Kabagani alias Mike Sitti were not around during the raid.

Azurin, who led the PDEA raiding team, said they were backed by personnel of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Maguindanao Field Office and the Army’s 90th Infantry Battalion in the operation.

“We have secured search warrants against the suspects and launched the operation around 5:30 a.m. but failed to get our principal targets,” Azurin told local reporters who covered and witnessed the raiding procedure.

The PDEA-BARMM has invited for questioning at their headquarters in this city several people inside Ameril’s compound during the conduct of the raid. Ameril is included in President Rodrigo Duterte’s list of narco-politicians.