P680K worth shabu seized from dealer in MagNorte
Local News • 21:15 PM Mon Mar 18, 2024
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By:
John Felix Unson
The P680,000 worth shabu seized from the runaway dealer named "Jowi" is now in the custody of the police. (John Unson)
COTABATO CITY --- A police team on Sunday seized P680,000 worth of shabu from a dealer, said to have links with local terrorists, who jumped into a river and swam away when he sensed he was dealing with non-uniformed policemen out to entrap him.
The runaway target of the entrapment operation led by Lt. Col. Esmael Madin, who is police chief of Sultan Kudarat municipality in Maguindanao del Norte, a certain Jowi, is now subject of a manhunt aided by local officials.
Barangay officials had told personnel of the Sultan Kudarat Municipal Police Station and reporters to look into the connection of Jowi, also known by aliases Abu Amir and Abu Muktar, with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, known for providing sanctuary to drug traffickers in exchange for money.
Madin’s team, supported by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation and different units of the Police Regional Police Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and personnel of the Cotabato City Police Station 1, were to entrap Jowi near a bridge in Barangay Salimbao in Sultan Kudarat, but the supposed sting went awry when he noticed that he had sold P680,000 worth of shabu to non-uniformed policemen.
Jowi jumped into the river under the bridge and swam downstream, leaving behind the shabu he turned over to Madin’s subordinates disguised as drug dependents.
Madin said they are to work with barangay officials aware of the suspect’s drug peddling activities in filing a criminal case against him in absentia.