6 drug peddlers nabbed in separate Region 12 drug stings

GENERAL SANTOS CITY --- Anti-narcotics agents arrested six large-scale drug peddlers and shut down a drug den in separate raids the past five days, authorities said Monday.The police first nabbed Sylvester Guiamelon and wife Sittie in a sting in Barangay Kenram in Isulan, capital town of Sultan Kudarat.Senior Superintendent Raul Supiter, director of the Sultan Kudarat provincial police, said Guiamelon is an employee of the Mindanao State University (MSU) in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao.Supiter said they learned of the drug trafficking activities of the Guiamelons from vigilant neighbors who even led agents to their hideout.Supiter said there is a possibility that they both peddled shabu clandestinely to students of MSU.The raiding team confiscated from the Guiamelons methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) and a Honda Civic bearing license plates LDL-939.Supiter said the impounded car was used in delivering drugs to their contacts in the adjoining Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao provinces.Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Region 12 arrested the next day drug dealers Sahid Manguindalat, Samer Pamaloy and Anton Damao in Barangay Griño in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat province.The suspects are working for a drug lord, Mubpon Mamalangkas, operator of a drug den in Purok Islam in Barangay Griño.Mamalangkas escaped when he sensed that combined agents of PDEA-12 and policemen were approaching his drug den from three directions, leaving behind almost P200,000 worth of shabu and drug sniffing paraphernalia.In a statement emailed on Sunday, the PDEA-12 said it is thankful to Supiter and his subordinates in the Tacurong City police for helping execute the operation that resulted in the closure of the drug den which Mamalangkas also used as transshipment point for shabu he circulated weekly to different towns.PDEA-12 agents had also cornered an incumbent barangay councilor, Al Sambaga, in Malapatan town in Sarangani after their operation in Tacurong City.Sambaga is an incumbent second-termer councilor in Barangay Sapu Masla, an interior area in Malapatan.He is among the top ten most wanted drug dealers in Malapatan town.PDEA-12 agents recovered from him shabu and a .45 caliber pistol when they raided his lair in Barangay Sapu Masla.