2 drug dealers killed in Tawi-Tawi PDEA operation

COTABATO CITY — Anti-narcotics agents shot dead two drug dealers in a shabu sting that turned awry when they resisted arrest in Barangay Libayuran in Panglima Sugala, Tawi-Tawi on Monday.

Akmad Munib Usman and Gorrie Sajili Usman, both identified with an armed group distributing shabu in seaside barangays in Panglima Sugala and other island municipalities in Tawi-Tawi, died from multiple bullet wounds.

Gil Cesario Castro, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said on Wednesday that their agents and personnel of different units of the Tawi-Tawi Provincial Police Office were supposed to detain the duo after selling to them 50 grams of shabu, costing P340,000, but they pulled out guns and opened fire.

The joint PDEA-BARMM and police team involved in the operation returned fire, killing them both.

“In a situation like that, our agents and policemen helping them stage entrapment operations have no way but to fight back to protect themselves," Castro said.

Three companions of the slain drug dealers had escaped using a small motorized watercraft, according to separate reports released by PDEA-BARMM and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region on Wednesday.

A team of combined PDEA-BARMM agents and policemen tried to chase the suspects, but their small boat overturned, causing them minor injuries.