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KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 30 Nov) – Operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) arrested a Criminology student in a buy-bust raid near Cotabato City on Wednesday.
PDEA-ARMM regional director Juvenal Azurin identified the suspect as Rocky Usama, 23, resident of Barangay Bagua and fourth year student taking up criminology in one of the colleges in Cotabato City.
Azurin said the suspect was arrested in a buy-bust raid they conducted in one of the houses located along the highway in the municipality of Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.
Recovered from the suspect was half a kilo of methamphetamine hydrochloride, also known as shabu, whose street value was estimated at P2.5 million.
Usama, according to Azurin, has been included in PDEA’s watch list and considered a “high value target.”
Also recovered from the raid were a Multicab and a mobile phone, which authorities claimed were used by the suspect in his illegal drug transactions.
Operatives of PDEA-ARMM, police in Datu Odin Sinsuat, and the Army arrested Usama.
The arrest of Usama was the second biggest raid the PDEA has launched in the provinces of North Cotabato and Maguindanao this week.
On Tuesday, PDEA raided a house in Pigcawayan in North Cotabato and arrested three suspected drug couriers where they recovered shabu worth P2.5 million. (Malu Cadelina Manar / MindaNews)
