COTABATO CITY (Friday, September 12, 2025) — Anti-narcotics agents clamped down five men together operating a drug den after buying from them P40,800 worth of shabu in an entrapment operation in Barangay Rosary Heights 6 in this city on Wednesday, September 10.

Barangay officials confirmed on Thursday, September 11, that the five suspects, Romeleo Apolinario, Prince Bryle Daniel, Mujiv Sameer Benito Datu Cali, Nur Esmael Sulaiman Gampong and Saod Bidara, are now detained, awaiting prosecution.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, had told reporters that the suspects were immediately frisked and detained by their agents and policemen after selling to them P40,800 worth of shabu during an entrapment operation right in their drug den along Rosales Street in Barangay Rosary Heights 6, Cotabato City.

Castro said the operation that resulted in the arrest of the six suspects and closure of their drug den, now guarded by barangay officials and community watchmen, was laid with the help of Cotabato City’s police director, Col. Jibin Bongcayao, and Mayor Bruce Matabalao.

Castro said the entrapment operation was together planned by PDEA-BARMM agents and officials of different units under Bongcayao and members of the Cotabato City Peace and Order Council, chaired Matabalao, after informants had reported that all of five now detained suspects facilitated pot sessions in their drug den.

Residents of Barangay Rosary Heights 6 had urged Castro and Bongcayao to validate circulating talks stating that Apolinario, Daniel, Cali, Gampong and Bidara shared fractions of their earnings from their illegal activities to few remaining leaders of two ally terror groups, the Dawlah Islamiya and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Both groups are known for providing sanctuary to drug traffickers and wanted persons in exchange for money.

Left side of photo shows all five men busted in an entrapment operation by policemen, now detained, charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.