A barangay tanod, a pedicab driver and cohort were arrested by anti-narcotics operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) during a buy-bust operation in Cotabato City on November 4, 2014.

PDEA Director General Undersecretary Arturo G. Cacdac, Jr., identified the suspects as Hamid Saban Salik, 34 years old, a high-value target drug personality and barangay tanod of Brgy. Poblacion 3, Cotabato City; Surab Abdullah Sedik, 38, pedicab driver; and Omar Midsel Butuan, 21, jobless. All arrested suspects are residents of Purok Maligaya, Bahay Maria, Poblacion 2, Cotabato City.

At around 5:30 pm, elements of PDEA Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA ARMM) under Director Yogi Felimon L. Ruiz conducted a buy-bust operation in Doña Teresa Extension, Poblacion 3, Cotabato City which resulted in the arrest of Salik, Sedik and Butuan after they agreed to sell one heat-sealed transparent plastic sachet of suspected shabu to a PDEA agent who acted as poseur-buyer.

Confiscated from Sedik were 110 pieces of small heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets containing white crystalline suspected to be shabu weighing approximately five grams and two pieces of P100 bills used as buy-bust money.

Seized pieces of drug evidence were brought to the PDEA ARMM laboratory for forensic examination, while the arrested suspects are temporarily detained at the PDEA ARMM jail facility.

Cases for violation of Section 5 (Sale of Dangerous Drugs) and Section 11 (Possession of Dangerous Drugs), Article II of RA 9165 or The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, are now filed in court against Salik, Sedik and Butuan.