A Sudanese, whom the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) then tagged as Baguio-based members of the West African Drug Syndicate (WADS) member, has been convicted of drug offenses here and will be locked up in jail for at least 20 years.
Sudanese Sami Saifeldin Osman, 26, then a student at the University of the Cordilleras (UC), Mohamed Osman Ali, 27, and their Filipino cohort, plumber Dunhill Valentin Calibuso, 29, were caught at house raided by PDEA, National Bureau of Investigation-Cordillera agents and local policemen in July 2019 at San Vicente barangay here seizing at least 12 plastic sachets of shabu, a bong, a weighing scale, a small plastic sachet of marijuana leaves and seeds, a roll of silver foil used for sniffing shabu and four lighters.
On January 25, RTC branch 60 Judge Rufus Malecdan sentenced Osman to at least 20 years in prison, pay P400,000 fine, ordered law enforcement agencies to catch Ali, who earlier was able to post bail, and also sentenced Calibuso at least 12 years and penalty of P300,000.
Baguio City Assistant Fiscal Phillip Kiat-ong, who led the government panel to prosecute the trio, painstakingly pursued the case until suceeding to convince the Court to decide in favor of the government, said PDEA-Cordillera regional director Gil Cesario Castro.
NBI-Cordillera regional director Atty. Cesar A. Bacani while congratulating Kiat-ong for the success, also thanked the Court for giving utmost merit to the evidences taken that led it to sentence Osman, Ali and Calibuso guilty as charged, thus again giving the government’s drug war hinged on a covergence among law enforcement agencies a feather on its cap.”
“WADS”
PDEA-Cordillera had been warning that the WADS had been operating in Northern Luzon wanting to make Baguio as its center of operations, specifically making the city as its center for recruitment of lady drug mules (couriers).
Castro said, a lady recruited by Osman and Ali, actually became a government asset who turned Osman and Ali in leading to their arrest in July 2019.
The data of the WADS operation in NL was accordingly encrypted in a laptop computer of the Sudanese suspects and told a lot about their operations in NL and the rest of the country, the PDEA added.
