COTABATO CITY (PNA) – A 65-year-old woman yielded P15-million worth of shabu when she was arrested by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM) on Friday afternoon here.
PDEA-BARMM Director Juvenal Azurin and his men conducted the 5 p.m. buy-bust operation along Notre Dame Avenue that led to the arrest of Sittie Omar Luman, 65, of Guindulungan, Maguindanao.
Luman’s arrest also led to the seizure of some 15 huge sachets of suspected shabu valued at P5.1 million.
“We were also quite surprised that a 65-year-old woman would get herself involved in the illegal drug trade,” Azurin said.
Anti-narcotics operatives, backed by police and soldiers, arrested Luman after she handed over several sachets of shabu to an undercover agent along Notre Dame Avenue in Barangay Rosary Heights 3.
A certain Lando, the car driver and accomplice of Luman, is now the subject of a PDEA follow-up operation after he was able to elude arrest.
Hours earlier on the same day, PDEA agents also arrested a suspected drug trafficker in another anti-drug sting in Buluan, Maguindanao.
The agents seized from Jaher Guiapal suspected shabu with an estimated street value of P136,000 in Barangay Poblacion, Buluan.
Guiapal, 40, a resident in the area, was arrested after he sold 20 grams of the drug to an undercover operative of PDEA-BARMM during the 4 p.m. anti-drug operation.
Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi lauded agents of the PDEA-BARMM for the arrest of Luman.
Both Luman and Guiapal are now being detained at the PDEA-BARMM headquarters here while charges for violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 were being readied against them.