Another Al-Khobar extort gang leader arrested

COTABATO CITY – Lawmen arrested yesterday another ranking member of the dreaded Al-Khobar extortion ring, the fourth to fall since November last year.

The suspect, Tongan Fati­ma, was arrested in a predominantly Moro village in Libu­ngan, North Cotabato by combined operatives of the North Cotabato and Tacurong City police led by Superintendent Joel Limson.

Fatima’s whereabouts was traced by the police with the help of a cashiered cohort, Badrudin Guiasilon, who was arrested in 2006 in connection with a deadly bomb attack in Tacurong City the same year.

Fatima and Guiasilon, who have confessed to their being members of the Al-Khobar’s central leadership, were both implicated in previous bombings of commercial establishments in North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat, with attacks meant to intimidate traders in the two provinces and, in effect, forced them to regularly shell out protection money to the extortion gang.

The Al-Khobar has claimed responsibility for the recent bombings of buses owned by big transportation firms in Central Mindanao and several other business establishments in the region.

Highly placed sources from the military and police’s intelligence communities said Fatima, an ethnic Maguinda­naon, masterminded some of the bombings, including the two attacks more than a year ago in busy spots in Tacurong City.

Fatima was also tagged as one of the “finance conduits” to traders of the Al-Khobar by a ranking member of the group, Musali Calo, who was arrested in North Cotabato last month after a month-long surveillance by police and Army agents.

The North Cotabato police have earlier arrested Calo, and two other Al-Khobar members, Mohaliden Hassan and Alex Sanduyugan, in separate operations launched after the bombing in November last year of the KMCC Shopping Mall in Kidapawan City, which killed a mall worker and caused serious injuries to more than 20 others.

In similar developments through text message sent to The STAR yesterday by Central Mindanao police director Chief Superintendent Feli­zardo Serapio, he identified the suspect Tongan Fatima, of legal age, but no permanent address and alleged to be involved in the series of bomb attacks in various parts of Central Mindanao region.

Serapio said the arresting team was composed of operatives of the North Cotabato Provincial Police Office (NCCPO), Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division (RIID) in Central Mindanao and Tacurong City Police Office (TCPO).

Fatima did not resist arrest after sensing that police operatives had surrounded his hideout in Barangay Poblacion in Libungan town at around 8 a.m. yesterday.

Limson, stormed the suspect’s lair based on a warrant of arrest signed and issued by Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 20 Judge Melanio Guerrero. Fatima is wanted for multiple attempted murder charges.