Drug den in SK town dismantled, operator's wife nabbed
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 12:45 PM Wed Oct 9, 2019
1
By:
John M. Unson
Photos courtesy of PDEA-BARMM.
MAGUINDANAO --- Law enforcement agents arrested five people, among them the wife of a wanted drug dealer, and dismantled their shabu distribution hub in an operation after dawn Wednesday.
Lanie Datumanong Ali of Barangay Kabuntalan in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao is now in the custody of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM).
Her husband, Banoh, the target of the joint police-PDEA operation, managed to escape bringing with him a blue bag that neighbors said contained pistols and fragmentation grenades.
Juvenal Azurin, director of PDEA-BARMM, said Wednesday they immediately dismantled the couple’s drug den, located in Barangay Kabuntalan.
Azurin said agents confiscated from the spouse of Banoh P170,000 worth of shabu and two fragmentation grenades.
Besides Ali, four men, whose exact identities are still being validated, were also caught sniffing shabu together in the drug den that Banoh operated.
“The wife of Banoh shall be prosecuted separately for violation of Republic Act 9165 and illegal possession of explosives,” Azurin said.
The four men now clamped down in the detention facility of PDEA-BARMM in Cotabato City shall also be charged accordingly, according to Azurin.
RA 9165, also known as the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, outlawed sale and possession of narcotics, such as shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) and marijuana and other regulated substances.