Arrest of Al-Khobar leader to weaken the group, says police

SULTAN KUDARAT- The arrest of a senior leader of the Al-Khobar extortion gang on Thursday in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat will substantially weaken the group, the military said.

Said Giad, who has a P175,000 bounty on his head, was nabbed by policemen and barangay officials in Sampao District in Isulan, capital town of Sultan Kudarat.

Local officials said Giad, also known as “Maestro,” is wanted for large-scale extortion activities and a string of kidnappings involving members of wealthy Chinese clans in Central Mindanao.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said followers of Giad will now feel there is no safe place for them in Central Mindanao’s adjoining North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces.

The Al-Khobar had bombed, in one attack after another in the past six years, dozens of establishments and buses whose owners refused to shell out “protection money” on a monthly basis.

“This arrest of Giad will surely cause demoralization in the ranks of the Al-Khobar and weaken the group,” Hermoso said.

Giad was an accomplice in criminal activities of Tahir Alonto, founder of the Pentagon kidnapping syndicate, who was killed in a military airstrike at the border of Maguindanao’s S.K. Pendatun and Datu Paglas towns about five years ago.

Hermoso said the 6th ID has tightened security in Central Mindanao to forestall possible retaliations for Giad’s arrest in Isulan on Thursday.