WANTED. Suspected "shabu”, a hand grenade, and a mobile phone were seized by police from a man long wanted for peddling illegal drugs in Ampatuan, Maguindanao. Police arrested Alimudin Franco Baliwan in his house in Barangay Poblacion on Friday (August 17, 2018). (Photo by PDEA-ARMM)
AMPATUAN, Maguindanao -- Police and anti-narcotics operatives arrested here Friday afternoon a man long wanted for peddling illegal drugs and seized from him suspected “shabu” (crystal meth) and a hand grenade.
Director Juvenal Azurin of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency - Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-ARMM) identified the suspect as Alimudin Franco Baliwan, 38, jobless and a resident of Barangay Poblacion.
Azurin said Baliwan was charged with drug peddling in 2014 but had eluded arrest.
A warrant of arrest for violation of Republic Act No. 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) was issued against him by Judge Bansawan Ibrahim of Regional Trial Court Branch 13 in Cotabato City.
PDEA agents, backed by elements of the Maguindanao police, Philippine National Police mobile force, and elements of the Army’s First Mechanized Infantry Battalion, went to the house of Baliwan to serve the arrest warrant.
“The surprised Baliwan did not resist arrest,” Azurin said, noting that the suspect is on the PDEA-ARMM’s list of high-value target drug personalities in the region.
The arrest operation was a product of two weeks of covert surveillance operation.
Azurin said the agents recovered from Baliwan a fragmentation grenade, a huge sachet of shabu and a mobile phone believed to be used by him in his illegal transactions.
Charges for violation of RA 9165 and RA 9516 (Illegal Possession of Explosives) are being prepared against the suspect at the PDEA-ARMM detention facility in Cotabato City. (PNA)
