PACKS OF SHABU. The two packs of suspected shabu seized from suspect Walid Nasser Usman, 32, at a checkpoint in Marawi City on Sunday (March 8, 2020). Authorities say they are verifying the authenticity of the suspect's identification card showing he is a jail guard at the Lanao del Sur Provincial Jail. (Photo courtesy of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office)
ILIGAN CITY — Police arrested on Sunday afternoon a 32-year-old man who yielded over PHP1.3 million worth of shabu at a checkpoint in Barangay Tampilong, Marawi City.
Col. Madzgani Mukaram, director of Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office, said suspect Walid Nasser Usman, is supposed to be a jail guard of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Jail in Marawi based on the identification cards seized from the suspect.
Mukaram said Usman was intercepted at a checkpoint on a motorcycle with plate number 1017-8076340.
He said operatives of the Regional Drugs Enforcement Unit (RDEU) 10 had been tailing Usman from Iligan City after receiving reports that he was transporting a big volume of shabu to Marawi.
Usman yielded around 200 grams of suspect shabu with an estimated market value of over PHP1.3 million.
The public information office of the Police Regional Office-10 described Usman as a high-value target.
Lt. Col. Mardy Hortillosa, PRO-10 information officer, said Usman had been under surveillance for a month.
Hortillosa said they are checking whether Usman was a jail guard after the Lanao del Sur provincial jail warden denied that the suspect was an employee.
Mukaram said the jail warden denied Usman is their employee "although his father previously worked as a computer analyst at the provincial jail.
He said a request for a written verification had been submitted to the jail management to confirm whether Usman is a government employee or not.
"Because if it is true that he is not an employee of the provincial jail, his ID might be fake and it is also possible that his driver's license is fake. I will charge him with many cases aside from drug charges," Mukaram said.
The suspect is now detained at Marawi City Police Station pending the filing of charges for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. (PNA)
