4 shabu peddlers in Cotabato apprehended with help from relatives

January 6, 2026 | 6:47pm

COTABATO CITY — Close relatives virtually gave away four men covertly peddling shabu in the streets of Cotabato City, who were apprehended within just three days through their relatives’ direct involvement in operations, a level of participation quite unusual for local executives and police officials.

The now-detained Sa-Anudin Sirad Maramdacan, Abubakar Guilly Dipatuan, Fahad Dumamba Kusain, and Alfredo Maglasang Dela Torre Jr. also occasionally sold marijuana, reportedly supplied by a few remaining members of the now-defunct Dawlah Islamiya and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, who were hiding in secluded areas of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, according to their relatives and friends.

The siblings and cousins of Maramdacan, Dipatuan, Kusain, and Dela Torre separately told reporters on Tuesday, January 6, that they are thankful to the Police Regional Office–Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (PRO-BAR) and to Mayor Bruce Matabalao’s office for giving attention to their reports about the suspects’ peddling of shabu and marijuana in Cotabato City.

Police Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of PRO-BAR, said on Tuesday that the four suspects were entrapped one after another by operatives led by the city’s police director, Col. Jibin Bongcayao, and his subordinate officers Captain Anuar Mambatao, Major Albert Carillo, and Lt. Patricia Bueno of the City Police Drug Enforcement Unit.

Relatives of the four suspects, now held in separate police detention facilities, observed the entrapment operations from a distance, along with barangay officials, according to De Guzman and local executives. The operations, which led to the suspects’ arrests, also involved senior members of the multi-sector Cotabato City Peace and Order Council, chaired by Mayor Bruce Matabalao, now in his second term.

The first to be apprehended in the four entrapment operations was Maramdacan, who was arrested after selling a sachet of shabu to policemen in Purok Pindulunan in Barangay Poblacion, Cotabato City, last Saturday, January 3.

Dipatuan was clamped down on Sunday by policemen after procuring from him a sachet of shabu in Purok Baghdad in Mother Barangay Tamontaka in Cotabato City.

Kusain and Dela Torre were arrested in separate entrapment operations on Monday in Barangay Poblacion 6 and in Barangay Rosary Heights 1 in Cotabato City after they sold a sachet of shabu each to non-uniformed policemen disguised as civilians.

Matabalao and De Guzman separately expressed their gratitude to the tipsters who reported the drug trafficking activities of the four suspects, who will be prosecuted for violations of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

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