MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Police arrested nine large-scale drug dealers with alleged links to an outlawed Islamic State-inspired group in separate operations in the province this weekend.
Reports reaching the office of Brig. Gen. Marni Marcos of Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao indicated that the first to fall were three alleged operators of a drug ring in Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Maguindanao.
Juhari Edzalama, Abdulsallam Indag and their leader, Hariking Amat, were intercepted by personnel of the municipal police in Barangay Brar, Datu Anggal Midtimbang while on a motorcycle to deliver shabu to a contact.
They are now detained at the Datu Anggal Midtimbang municipal police office, to be prosecuted for violation of Republic Act 9165, also known as the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
The suspects had long been subject of surveillance by operatives of the municipal police.
Another six others were arrested Friday in nearby Datu Odin Sinsuat.
Nomer Kamid, Michael Balindong, Grachalla Usman, Norain Ensyek, Jonathan Guiamalon and Jomar Buayan fell in an entrapment laid in Barangay Upper Capiton, Datu Odin Sinsuat by municipal police personnel.
They were together when one of them turned over shabu to a plainclothes police agent in a sting that resulted in their arrest.
All six men are now in the custody of the Datu Odin Sinsuat municipal police.
Police and Army intelligence sources have confirmed that the suspects arrested by PRO-BARMM units in Datu Anggal Midtimbang and in Datu Odin Sinsuat remitted part of their earnings to leaders of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
The group, operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is blamed for all deadly bombings in central Mindanao in recent years.