COTABATO CITY — Three drug peddlers, long wanted for distributing narcotics near school campuses and in far-flung farming enclaves, were arrested in an entrapment operation by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-12 (PDEA-12) in Tacurong City on Wednesday.
Benjamin C. Recites III, director of the PDEA-12, told reporters on Thursday that the now-detained suspects, one of them a woman, will be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Mr. Recites said the suspects yielded peacefully when they sensed that they had sold P680,000 worth of crystal meth (shabu) to non-uniformed PDEA-12 agents and policemen during a tradeoff along a stretch of a highway in Barangay Poblacion in Tacurong City.
Mr. Recites said their agents involved in the operation found out that all three suspects were residents of a town in Maguindanao del Norte, close to Cotabato City.
Barangay officials in their hometown told reporters all three suspects distributed shabu to retailers operating near school campuses and in interior areas in towns in Maguindanao del Norte. — John Felix M. Unson