COTABATO CITY (Tuesday, September 9, 2025) — Anti-narcotics agents arrested two drug den operators and seized P6.8 million worth of shabu from a peddler in separate operations in Mindanao regions on Monday, September 8.
Benjamin Recites III, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-12, said on Tuesday, September 9, that two men were arrested by their agents who found shabu and drug sniffing paraphernalia in their hideout in Purok Mangga in Barangay Birada in Kidapawan City that they subjected to a search operation based on a warrant from a local court.
Recites said the drug den raid, supported by officials of the Cotabato Provincial Police Office, was launched after they received reports from barangay leaders about the duo’s pot sessions, along with friends, in a house in Purok Mangga in Barangay Birada in Kidapawan City.
Kidapawan City, covering more than 40 barangays, is the capital of Cotabato province, one of the four provinces in Region 12.
Local executives said the two drug den operators, now in the custody of PDEA-12, are known longtime shabu and marijuana dealers who have contacts in secluded barangays in Kidapawan City and in nearby towns.
Recites said officials of the Cotabato Provincial Police Office helped them plot the operation that resulted in the detention of the two suspects and the immediate closure of their drug den, now guarded by barangay officials.
PDEA agents in Region 9 confiscated in a separate operation on Monday a kilo of shabu, costing P6.8 million, from a dealer they entrapped in Barangay Sinunuc in Zamboanga City.
Bryan Babang, regional director of PDEA-9, told reporters on Tuesday that the male suspect was immediately detained after selling to their agents a kilo of shabu during a clandestine tradeoff in Barangay Sinunuc.
The entrapment operation that led to the arrest of the suspect and confiscation from him of P6.8 million worth of shabu was laid with the help of barangay officials and confidential informants aware of his shabu peddling activities.
Babang said units of the Police Regional Office-9, under Brig Gen. Eleazar Matta, and the local government unit in Zamboanga City supported the operation extensively.
Photo shows plainclothes agents of the PDEA-9 and policemen inspecting the shabu sold to them by a dealer in an entrapment operation in Barangay Sinunuc on Monday.