3 drug fiends aiding BIFF held in Maguindanao

NORTH COTABATO - Lawmen arrested on Tuesday in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao three notorious drug traffickers allegedly helping fund the activities of the brigand Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

The suspects were identified as identified as Thong Usop, Kamarudin Bualan and Kudzak Pusdan.

Seized from them were high-powered guns, including a caliber .50 machinegun and fragmentation grenades, during the raid at their hideout in Barangay Damalusay.

Chief Inspector Elmer Guevarra, chief of the provincial office of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in North Cotabato, said the three suspects fired at the approaching security forces but eventually yielded after sensing they had been surrounded.

Guevarra said they were only to arrest the leader of the three men, Ebrahim Ayada, also known as “Brando,” based on a warrant issued by Judge Bansawan Ibrahim of the Regional Trial Court Branch 14 in Cotabato City.

Ayada managed to escape, but his three henchmen, also wanted for drug trafficking, were cornered by the raiding team before they could run away.

Guevarra said Army combatants from units based in Datu Paglas and surrounding towns helped them carry out the raid.

Gueverra and his men immediately left Barangay Damalusay, bringing with them the three men and the Shabu and the firearms recovered from their hideout after learning from barangay officials that heavily-armed men identified with Ayada have started closing in.

Military intelligence officials said Ayada and his three cashiered followers have links with the BIFF, now fighting government forces in marshlands along the border of Maguindanao and North Cotabato since Monday dawn.

Ayada has also been helping raise funds needed to sustain the BIFF’s leadership core, according to sources, among them Moro Army intelligence operatives.