COTABATO CITY – Police said an anti-drug operation in Barangay Rosary Heights 8 here on Wednesday led to the arrest of six persons, the dismantling of a drug den and the recovery of about a dozen sachets of shabu.
Senior Inspector Tirso Pascual, the police station 4 chief, said the suspect, Ali Sanday, a brother of a policewoman assigned in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), converted his home into a drug den with his clients coming in and out to use shabu.
“This is a drug den and you can see sachets of shabu in every nook and corner of the house,” Pascual said as he pointed to illegal drugs stuffed in the house walls, ceiling, chairs, beams and roof.
While the search was ongoing, Sanday’s mobile phone received text messages about orders for illegal drugs while some senders informed him they are coming to use drugs at the premises.
Five persons indeed showed up and were also arrested.
“These people are coming here to sniff illegal drugs so we arrested them too,” Pascual said.
Several of Sanday’s neighbors said people who are not familiar with them were coming in and out of his house for still unknown reasons, until the raid took place.
“We thought they are his friends and they just come in the house to chat or drink liquor, we did not know it was a drug den until now,” neighbor Asad Morgani told reporters.
Sanday’s sister, a police officer, told police she was unaware of her brother’s activities.
Sanday and the five other suspects were hauled to the city police headquarters while charges for violation of Republic Act 9165 are being prepared against them. (Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
