Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and policemen seized P1.7 million worth of shabu from two peddlers entrapped in one of the barangays in this city on Monday, July 21.

Senior city officials and Moro traditional leaders who helped the PDEA-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao plan the successful sting confirmed to reporters on Tuesday, July 22, that plainclothes anti-narcotics agents had seized from the two male suspects P1.7 million worth of shabu during a tradeoff at the Martinez area in Barangay Poblacion 4 in Cotabato City.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the PDEA-BARMM, said on Tuesday that the two suspects are now locked in their detention facility, to be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs act of 2002 using the 250 grams of shabu confiscated from them as evidence.

The suspects were immediately frisked and cuffed by PDEA-BARMM agents and policemen under Cotabato City’s police director, Col. Jibin Bongcayao, after selling to them their illegal merchandise along a stretch of the ND Avenue in the Martinez area in Barangay Poblacion 4.

Castro said the operation that led to their arrest was supported by the office of Cotabato City Mayor Bruce Matabalao. (July 22, 2025)