GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Police operatives arrested two target-listed drug personalities in South Cotabato province in separate operations in a village in Tantangan town on Sunday.
Brig. Gen. Eliseo Tam Rasco, regional director of the Police Regional Office-12, identified the suspects as Jomare Bacas Mangudadatu, 49, and Ranny Magon Baguilan, 42, both residents of Barangay Magon in Tantangan.
He said the suspects were nabbed during search operations in Purok Boundary and Purok Centro conducted by joint elements from the South Cotabato police’s drug enforcement unit, mobile force company, intelligence branch and the Tantangan municipal police station.
“They were included in the area’s drug watch list and the target list of the PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency),” he said in a report.
Armed with search warrants, he said the operating team simultaneously swooped on the houses of the suspects at around 4:30 a.m.
The warrants, which were issued by Executive Judge Lorenzo Balo of the Regional Trial Court Branch 44 in Surallan town, were for violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Citing a report from Tantangan acting police chief, Capt. Kent Jerek Capadosa, Rasco said the operating team recovered from Mangudadatu’s house one large, four medium and three small sachets of suspected shabu and various drug paraphernalia.
He said they also found two hand grenades, a .45-caliber Colt MK IV handgun with serial number, a steel magazine loaded with 10 live bullets and four extra live bullets.
The official said the search on Baguilan’s house yielded negative for illegal drugs but the team found a hand grenade reportedly owned by the suspect.
Rasco said the raids were witnessed by a media worker and officials of Barangay Magon.
He said the team submitted the recovered illegal drugs and other pieces of evidence to the provincial crime laboratory for examination and valuation.
Mangudadatu and Baguilan, who are detained at the Tantangan municipal police station lockup, will be charged with illegal possession of explosives.
A separate charge for possession of dangerous drugs and drug paraphernalia will also be filed against Mangudadatu. (PNA)
