COTABATO CITY (August 15, 2025) — Two drug dealers who reportedly shared earnings to leaders of the now weakened Dawlah Islamiya fell in separate entrapment operations in two provinces in Central Mindanao within just 24 hours.

The first to fall in the two operations is Paulo Gabines Leonardo, arrested by non-uniformed policemen after selling to them 12 grams of shabu, costing P81,600, on Thursday, August 14, 2025, in Barangay Makir in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Friday, August 15, that the entrapment operation that resulted in the arrest of the suspect was planned by Lt. Col. Esmael Madin, chief of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station, after tipsters had reported his trafficking of shabu in the municipality.

Local executives and barangay officials in Datu Odin Sinsuat had also relayed to police officials that Leonardo shared earnings from his peddling of shabu to a ragtag band of Dawlah Islamiya terrorists, known for providing sanctuary to large-scale dealers of shabu and marijuana in far-flung areas at marshlands at the border of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur in exchange for money.

The entrapment operation by Madin and his subordinate-policemen that resulted in the confiscation of P81,600 worth of shabu from Leonardo was preceded by the arrest on Wednesday night, August 13, in Koronadal City, South Cotabato of a narcotics trafficker from Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur.

Traditional Moro community leaders and Army intelligence agents in Datu Piang had reported that the now detained shabu dealer Radin Mamaso Guiali is related by blood to two leaders of the Dawlah Islamiya whose small groups are just moving around the neighboring Datu Salibo and Datu Saudi Ampatuan towns in Maguindanao del Sur.

Guiali was immediately detained by policemen after turning over to them 25 grams of shabu, worth P170,000, during a tradeoff in Barangay Morales in Koronadal City.

Officials of the Police Regional Office-12 told reporters on Friday that the operation that resulted in Guiali’s arrest, led by Lt. Col. Peter Pinalgan, Jr., chief of the Koronadal City Police Station, was assisted by officials of the South Cotabato Provincial Police Office and units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division the province.

Photo shows Leonardo, now locked in a police detention facility, awaiting prosecution for his criminal offense. (August 15, 2025, Cotabato City, Bangsamoro Region)