Delivery of P850K worth shabu to Cotabato City foiled
Local News • 09:00 AM Mon Feb 20, 2023
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By:
John M. Unson
Suspects Ben Mohammad and Meri Baluta are now detained. (From PDEA-BARMM)
COTABATO CITY - Authorities foiled Saturday an attempt by two couriers to deliver P850,000 worth of shabu from Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur to a contact here.
Christian Frivaldo, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told reporters Monday they are now in custody of Ben Mohammad and his companion, a woman named Meri Baluta.
Mohammad and Baluta were intercepted by PDEA-BARMM agents and policemen at Lower Taviran in Kabuntalan town in Maguindanao del Norte, together in a vehicle supposedly en route to this city.
Frivaldo said the interception of the duo by PDEA-BARMM agents and personnel of the Kabuntalan Municipal Police Station was premised on tips from their relatives aware of their plan to smuggle into this city 125 grams of shabu from Maguindanao del Sur province.
“We are now probing on the source of the shabu confiscated from them. We are also exhausting means now to identify their prospective contacts around,” Frivaldo said.
PDEA-BARMM agents placed at P850,000 the value of the shabu confiscated from Mohammad and Baluta, now clamped down in the agency’s detention facility here.
Frivaldo said the PDEA-BARMM is grateful to the Kabuntalan municipal police force for supporting their operation that resulted in the prompt arrest of Mohammad and Baluta and the seizure of their illegal merchandise.