COTABATO CITY – A suspected drug pusher operating in a hinterland town in Maguindanao was killed by police for resisting arrest during an entrapment operation on Wednesday.
Chief Inspector Erwin Tabora, municipal police chief of Upi town in Maguindanao, said suspect Jazmer Sla, a resident of Cotabato City, fired at law enforcers that triggered a shootout.
“The suspect’s remains are now at the Villa funeral parlor in Barangay Nuro,” Tabora said.
Joint elements of the Upi police and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-ARMM), conducted an entrapment against Sla around 2 p.m. in Barangay Kibleg, with one police agent acting as poseur-buyer of “shabu”.
As soon as Sla handed over the five grams of shabu to the poseur-buyer, Tabora said he and other police officers approached the suspect to arrest him.
“The suspect, however, pulled his home-made pistol and fired at us, forcing us to fire back,” Tabora said, adding that they were able to seize from Sla a “Fortylite” home-made pistol, marked money, and two sachets of shabu.
Meanwhile, in Barangay Rosary Heights 3, Cotabato City, police also arrested drug suspect Sukarno Utto, who did not resist arrest and is now detained at Police Station 1 here.
Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi has ordered the police to intensify the fight against criminality, including snatchers and drug peddlers.
On Wednesday, Sayadi led the police in arresting Abraham Daud, a member of the Ring Life Robbery-Snatching Group operating in the city.
Police seized several expensive mobile phones believed to have been snatched from various victims, including a home-made Uzi sub-machinegun pistol, from Daud and several of his gang mates. (Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
