3 drug dealers funding BIFF arrested in Maguindanao

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

The suspects, Thong Usop, Kamarudin Bualan, and Kudzak Pusdan, yielded high-powered guns, including a .50-caliber machinegun, and grenades when policemen raided their hideout in Barangay Damalusay, Datu Paglas town.

Chief Inspector Elmer Guevarra, provincial chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said Usop, Bualan and Pusdan fired at policemen and soldiers approaching their lair but eventually gave up.

Guevarra said they were only targeting to arrest the leader of the three drug dealers, Ebrahim Ayada, 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 before they could run away.

Guevarra said elements of Army units in Datu Paglas and surrounding towns helped them carry out the raid. 

Military intelligence officials said Ayada and his three cohorts have links with the BIFF, which has been fighting government forces in marshlands along the border of Maguindanao and North Cotabato since Monday. 

Ayada has been helping raise funds to sustain the BIFF’s activities, according to sources, among them Army intelligence operatives.