Gun dealer killed, 3 busted in Maguindanao del Sur CIDG operation

COTABATO CITY— An illegal gun dealer was killed while three others were arrested in a police entrapment operation that also led to the confiscation of a light machinegun, two assault rifles and a pistol, in Talayan, Maguindanao del Sur on Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, on Friday identified the slain gunrunner as Zaldy Usman, who was immediately neutralized by agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group when he pulled out a gun and opened fire after he sensed that they have sold to them unlicensed firearms during a tradeoff in the town proper of Talayan.

Personnel of the CIDG-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, led by Police Lt. Col. Ariel Huesca, seized from the suspects a 5.56 caliber K3 light machinegun, two stock-type vintage 5.56 M16 assault rifles and a Colt .45 caliber pistol, according to Tanggawohn.

The CIDG-BAR laid the entrapment operation with the help of units of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office after receiving information from confidential tipsters about the peddling of undocumented military-type firearms by Usman and his companions, Basir Baliwan, Ismael Cabagani and Ari Butuan, now detained.

Tanggawohn, citing a report from the Talayan Municipal Police Station, whose personnel also assisted the CIDG-BAR’s illegal firearms sale sting, said that agents under Huesca immediately detained Baliwan, Cabagani and Butuan when they yielded voluntarily after seeing how policemen felled the uncooperative Usman with their service pistols and rifles.

The CIDG-BAR, in a statement released on Friday, stated that Baliwan, Cabagani and Butuan are to be prosecuted for violation of the Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act which prohibits possession, or sale of firearms, ammunition and explosives without permit from the Philippine National Police.