By Benjamin Cuaresma
COTABATO CITY — A suspected high-value drug target was arrested after allegedly handing half a kilogram of suspected shabu to an undercover agent in a buy-bust operation in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, yielding an estimated P3.4 million worth of illegal drugs.
Mahadir Arabani Udja, 28, of Barangay Silubog, Bongao, was taken into custody at about 8 p.m. Wednesday, September 30, in Barangay Tubig Tanah, according to Abraham Solon Kalim, chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM) provincial office in Tawi-Tawi.
Udja was identified by authorities as a high-value target in the operation.
Law enforcement teams recovered 10 sachets containing suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride with a combined weight of 500 grams and an estimated value of P3.4 million.
The operation involved personnel from PDEA, the Philippine Marines and the Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit.
Kalim credited the operational support provided by the 4th Marine Rifle Battalion under Lt. Col. Richard Malabanan, the Tawi-Tawi police provincial office headed by Col. Byron Alatog, and the Bongao municipal police led by Col. Roy Zantua.
The arrest came just two days after another major anti-drug operation off Bongao resulted in the seizure of suspected shabu valued at P20.4 million.
That earlier operation also led to the arrest of alleged large-scale drug dealer Sheik Sahid Basa Abdulla.
Authorities said Abdulla was wounded after the drug transaction turned violent, with him and his companions allegedly opening fire at law enforcers who approached during the operation.
The two successive seizures brought renewed attention to anti-narcotics operations targeting suspected drug trafficking activities in Tawi-Tawi.
ia/xf
