A SUSPECTED drug trafficker was arrested by a joint team of the military and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Mindanao, as the Armed Forces has joined the campaign against illegal drugs.
Maj. Filemon Tan Jr., Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command spokesman, said the team also seized highpowered firearms from Ismael Matuan Sarip of Lanao del Norte, who was wounded, when he tried to shoot it out with the government antinarcotics against who conducted the buy-bust operation that resulted in his arrest.
Tan said the operation was carried out by personnel from the Army’s Fourth Mechanized Battalion and 15th Infantry Battalion and PDEA agents, who seized three sachets of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride, or shabu, worth P20,000 and another sanchet containing suspected dried marijuana leaves from Sarip.
They also recovered from him an M-16A1 rifle, a shotgun, magazines with ammunition, marked money and documents.
“The military continues to assist law enforcers in the intensified conduct of operations against illegal drugs,” Tan said.
Earlier, soldiers, along with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters, collared 53 members of a notorious lawless group involved in peddling illegal drugs in North Cotabato.
The operation that was carried out against the group of Madrox Masgal, a notorious drug pusher in North Cotabato, also yielded several high-powered firearms.
Masgal is responsible for the deaths of personnel of the 45th Infantry Battalion and Seventh Field Artillery Battalion, and the landmine attack on the members of the 62nd Division Reconnaissance Company.
The 53 individuals were arrested during the operation launched on October 5, which was conducted in close coordination with the MILF.
The operation against the group also resulted in the recovery of several high-powered firearms belonging to the lawless group, including a homemade barret, an M16 rifle, two homemade M-79 grenade launchers and live rocket-propelled grenades.
Tan said the operation was conducted by members of the 602nd Infantry Brigade, PDEA operatives and policemen in the marshy areas of Barangays Nabalawag, Kadingilan, Olamdang, Kadigasan and Tugal, all in Midsayap, North Cotabato.