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John Unson - Philstar.com
April 25, 2026 | 3:50pm
All of the eight shabu peddlers entrapped in Cotabato City on Thursday, April 23, 2026, by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, are now detained.
Philstar.com / John Unson
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested in an entrapment operation on Thursday, April 23, eight individuals, five of them women, together operating a clandestine drug den in Barangay Rosary Heights 10 in this city.
The suspects, Bai Yhasmin Barudi Usman, Shaina Midtimbang Pandita, Normina Kamad Dimalen, Odessa Kanakan Afdal, Mariam Adam Matubil and their male cohorts, Datu King Batudi Usman, Datu Jun Munting Abdulkarim and Esmael Mambayao, are now in the custody of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Edgar Jubay, regional director of PDEA-BARMM, told reporters on Saturday that the eight suspects were immediately arrested by their agents and personnel of different units of the Cotabato City Police Office and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region after selling to them shabu in the premises of their drug den in Barangay Rosary Heights 10.=
Jubay said the operation, supported by Cotabato City Mayor Bruce Matabalao and the director of the Cotabato City Police Office, Col. Jibin Bongcayao, was based on tips by villagers about the illegal activities of the suspects in a residential area in Barangay Rosary Heights 10.
Under state law, drug den operation is a non-bailable criminal offense.
PDEA-BARMM agents had confiscated from the eight suspects during the entrapment operation P170,000 worth of shabu and mobile phones bearing the numbers of their accomplices in Cotabato City and in nearby towns in Maguindanao del Norte province.
The entrapment operation was laid after residents of Barangay Rosary Heights 10 reported to Matabalao’s office and to PDEA-BARMM agents the collaboration of the eight suspects in facilitating pot sessions in their drug den for buyers of their illegal merchandise.
All eight of them, now detained, shall be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, according to Jubay.
