BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – Three suspected drug traffickers were killed while three police officers were seriously wounded when an exchange of fire broke out during an anti-drug operation in Surigao City Friday night.
Police identified one of the fatalities as Jamal Hadji alyas “Ismael†and the wounded lawmen as Senior Inspectors Allan Caballes and Paul Michael Neffe, and Senior Police Officer 1 Ricky Cañeda, all of the Surigao City police.
The raid on a house in Bernadette Subdivision, Barangay Luna also resulted in the arrest of another suspected drug trafficker whose name was not immediately available, said Superintendent Dominador Aquino Jr. director of the Caraga police office.
Aquino said a team composed of policemen and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency were out to serve a warrant for the arrest of Hadji and the two slain suspects when the firefight broke out at about 9 p.m.