COTABATO CITY (September 13, 2025) — Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and policemen seized P3.4 million worth of shabu from two women entrapped in Barangay Sarimanok in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur on Wednesday, September 10.
The suspects, Daraan Macagaan Baulo, 50, and the 43-year-old Noraida Arindig Tago, were arrested just a day after agents of the PDEA-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and plainclothes policemen confiscated from Saidalo Limpao Damonday P3.4 million worth of shabu in an entrapment operation in Saguiaran town in Lanao del Sur, which is not to distant from Marawi City, the capital of the province.
Officials of the PDEA-BARMM and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region told reporters on Thursday, September 12, that local executives and community leaders wants an investigation on reports that Baulo and Tago, both residents of Saguiaran, and Damonday shared fractions of their earnings from trafficking of narcotics to few remaining members of the now weakened Dawlah Islamiya terror group.
Gil Cesario Castro, director of PDEA-BARMM, told reporters on Thursday that the two women their agents entrapped in Marawi City are now both detained, to be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
The two suspects were immediately arrested by PDEA-BARMM agents and operatives from different units of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region after selling to them half a kilo of shabu during a tradeoff in Barangay Sarimanok in Marawi City.
Castro said the operation that led to the confiscation from them of P3.4 million worth of shabu was laid with the help of local executives in Marawi City and PRO-BAR’s director, Police Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman.
PDEA-BARMM agents and counterparts from different units of PRO-BAR in Lanao del Sur arrested last Tuesday, September 9, the 32-year-old Damonday in an entrapment operation in Barangay Poblacion in Saguiaran.
He was immediately frisked and cuffed by PDEA-BARMM agents after turning over to them half a kilo of shabu during a clandestine tradeoff, laid with the help of policemen from the Saguiaran Municipal Police Station.
De Guzman said he has ordered their intelligence units in Lanao del Sur to help the PDEA-BARMM validate the reports by local executives and traditional Maranao leaders that Baulo, Tago and Damonday, arrested in separate entrapment operations within just two days, have links with the Dawlah Islamiya and its ally, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
The now weakened Dawlah Islamiya and the BIFF, both fomenting hatred for non-Muslims, are known for providing sanctuary to shabu and marijuana dealers and wanted persons in exchange for money.
Photo shows the two women arrested by anti-narcotics agents in Marawi City, now both detained, to be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.