Arsenals of Moro drug lords seized amid anti-narco campaign

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Central Mindanao residents never knew how formidable were local Moro drug lords until authorities found the arsenals in separate raids the past six days of a wanted mayor and a barangay chairman in the region.

Policemen and soldiers on Thursday found heavy military armaments in the lair of wanted drug trafficker Renz Tukuran, chairman of Barangay Lumupog in Midsayap town in North Cotabato.

Tukuran, also known as Datu Puti, and his followers escaped to a marsh near the vast Liguasan Delta when they noticed combined teams of soldiers, policemen and guerillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) approach their hideout in Barangay Lumupog to arrest him.

Superintendent Bernard Tayong, spokesman of the North Cotabato police, confirmed on Saturday the recovery of a .50 caliber machinegun, a .30 caliber machinegun, two 60 millimeter mortar launchers hidden in the abandoned hideout of Tukuran, an ethnic Maguindanaon.

Key members of the Midsayap municipal peace and order council on Saturday told The STAR that Tukuran was a large-scale drug trafficker.

The sources said his underground network covered more than half of the 40 barangays in Midsayap and nearby villages in Kabuntalan, North Cotabato.

Tukuran’s cohort, wanted drug lord Mokz Masgal, most known as “Madrox,” was driven away from Barangay Tugal, Midsayap by government forces and a group from the MILF that jointly raided his hideout there in late September.

The operation resulted in the arrest of 13 followers of Masgal, now detained at the North Cotabato provincial jail in Kidapawan City, to be prosecuted for possession of explosives, M-14 and M-16 assault rifles and shoulder-fire rocket launchers.  

The recovery of the arms cache from the hideout of Masgal, who fled to the Liguasan Delta along with his three followers, hit the news and alarmed central Mindanao residents, virtually amazed with his group’s firepower.

Thursday’s anti-narcotics operation in Barangay Lumupog that led to the confiscation of Tukuran’s war chest was preceded by a five-day police-army offensive against the group of the now fugitive Mayor Muntassir Sabal of Talitay town in the second district of Maguindanao.

Talitay is known as the “shabu capital” of Maguindanao, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. 

President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier tagged Sabal and his brother Abdulwahab “narco-politicians,” listed in Malacañang’s roster of wanted drug traffickers in the country.

Abdulwahab, incumbent vice mayor of Talitay, was arrested at the Maguindanao Airport in early October in connection with his alleged involvement in drug trafficking.

The government forces that searched for Sabal and his men last November 18 found in his abandoned house in Talitay an M16 assault rifle, a .45 caliber pistol and methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) hidden in its rooms.

Soldiers tracking down Sabal’s henchmen also found crew-served weapons, such as .50 and .30 caliber machineguns, 81 and 60 millimeter mortar launchers in an arsenal near his house in Barangay Pagada southeast of Talitay.

Lt. Col. Markton Abo, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said barangay residents have confirmed that the recovered weapons were owned by Sabal, kept in adjoining houses that sheltered members of his private armed group.

Sabal has been out of office for about two months now, prompting the provincial government of Maguindanao to facilitate the takeover of municipal councilors Kamid Buisan and Noraisa Mato of Talitay’s abandoned mayoral and vice mayoral posts, respectively.

A soldier, Staff Sergeant Giovanni Olimpo of the 5th Special Forces Battalion and five members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, reportedly coddling Sabal’s accomplices, were killed on November 21 in an encounter in a marsh about two kilometers from the Talitay town center.

Three soldiers got killed while seven others were badly wounded in an encounter with the group of Masgal in Midsayap’s Barangay Tugal in the first attempt to arrest him last August.

The initial mission to serve Masgal a warrant for his arrest went haywire and turned bloody when his men ambushed the policemen and soldiers dispatched to locate him and his companions.

The raid of Tukuran’s hideout in Midsayap’s Barangay Lumupog last Thursday came after a series of bloody encounters between his group and MILF rebels helping the police neutralize him.

The intermittent encounters that lasted from November 14 to 20 exacted six fatalities on each side and dislocated 2,316 families in Lumupog and in nearby villages in Northern Kabuntalan town in Maguindanao.