2 traffickers linked to Dawlah Islamiya terrorists nabbed

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

June 24, 2026 | 6:21pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Anti-narcotics agents seized more than P3 million worth of shabu from two dealers, both known for sharing earnings with remnants of the Dawlah Islamiya, entrapped in separate operations in General Santos City and in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat on Tuesday, June 23.

Local executives and Charlene Magdurulang, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 12, separately told reporters on Wednesday that the first to fall in the two entrapment operations is a 28-year-old male resident of Marawi City in Lanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro region.

The suspect was immediately detained by combined PDEA 12 agents and policemen after selling them P3.4 million worth of shabu during a tradeoff in Purok Maunlad Phase 2 in Barangay Apopong in General Santos City.

Ranking intelligence units in Lanao del Sur of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and officials of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade covering the province confirmed to reporters on Wednesday that the suspect, whose name they withheld, in the meantime, while efforts to locate his cohorts in General Santos City are still underway, is linked to a few remaining members of the now defunct Dawlah Islamiya terror group.

Local executives in Lanao del Sur said the suspect also peddled marijuana supplied to him by remaining members of the now non-functional Dawlah Islamiya terror group, propagated in hinterlands in Lanao del Sur that are close to its borders with Bukidnon and Cotabato provinces in Regions 10 and 12, respectively.

PDEA 12 agents had also entrapped on the same day a 42-year-old male shabu dealer in Purok Don Vicente in Barangay Kenram in Isulan, the capital town of Sultan Kudarat province in Region 12.

Magdurulang said the suspect was arrested by PDEA 12 agents and policemen, all disguised as drug dependents, after they had procured from him P34,000 worth of shabu in a secluded area in Purok Don Vicente in Barangay Kenram, where his family resides.

Officials of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and their subordinates in the 601^st Infantry Brigade, whose headquarters is less than 20 kilometers away from Isulan, said members of the Dawlah Islamiya in nearby towns in Maguindanao del Sur allowed him to peddle shabu in their enclaves in the province in exchange for money.

Magdurulang said the two narcotics traffickers entrapped in General Santos City and in Isulan, the capital town of Sultan Kudarat, shall be separately prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.