Peddler killed, P320,000 worth shabu seized in Tawi-Tawi

COTABATO CITY ---- Anti-narcotics agents shot dead a trafficker who refused to yield after selling P320,000 worth of shabu to a team tasked to entrap him Sunday in Bongao town in Tawi-Tawi.

Umda Abain Karimuddin died on the spot in the shootout that he provoked when he pulled out a rifle as personnel of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao tried to arrest him after turning over his illegal merchandise to non-uniformed agents during a tradeoff past 7:00 a.m. Sunday in Barangay Mandulan, Bongao.

Bongao is the capital town of Tawi-Tawi, a component province of the Bangsamoro region.

In a statement, the regional office of PDEA-BARMM here said the sting that turned haywire and resulted in the death of Karimuddin was laid with the help of the Tawi-Tawi provincial police and the 12^th Marine Battalion of the Philippine Navy.

Besides his M16 assault rifle, PDEA-BARMM agents and members of the Bongao municipal police also recovered from Karimuddin two rifle grenades.

The PDEA-BARMM said agents are now trying to determine the source of the shabu seized from Karimuddin.

PDEA-BARMM agents have confiscated no less than P10 million worth of shabu in a series of entrapment operations in Tawi-Tawi since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020.

Its agents also seized a total of P27.2 million worth of shabu in two separate entrapment operations in the municipalities of Indanan and Parang in Sulu last week.

Sulu is also inside the core territory of BARMM that also covers the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato.