COTABATO CITY — Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Sunday arrested three elusive suspected illegal drug den operators in this city.
Juvenal Azurin, PDEA director in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-ARMM), identified the suspects as Arbaya Balilia, Guinid Mohamad Lumabao, and Mariam Lumabao.
The three had repeatedly eluded arrest in previous operations of the PDEA in this city.
Azurin said that charges for violation of the Republic Act 9165, also known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, are being readied against the suspects, who are detained at the PDEA-ARMM lock-up cell.
Azurin said Balilia has been in the PDEA watch list for large-scale drug trafficking and operation of drug dens in Barangay Bagua, this city.
PDEA agents backed by policemen and Army Special Forces Battalion troops, nabbed Balila and the Lumabaos based on information from village officials.
However, two of Balilia’s henchmen and “runners” managed to elude arrest.
Seized from them were about a dozen small and big-sized heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets of suspected shabu.
“Despite the series of arrests and anti-drug operations, still there are people who still engaged in (the use of) illegal drugs and peddling,” Azurin said, making the job of the PDEA even more challenging. (Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
