Pakistan national arrested for links with Daesh

From The Gulf Today (Dec 1): Pakistan national arrested for links with Daesh

Police and anti-narcotics agents reported the arrest of a Pakistani national allegedly with connections to Daesh-linked terrorists in General Santos City in restive Mindanao for illegal drugs.

Police identified the suspect as Shahzad Khan alias Salman, 25, who was arrested with his wife, a Filipina, during a raid on their house in General Santos City where they confiscated sachets of shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride worth about $2,000.

Police confirmed that Khan was a member of the El Patron drug group that continued to operate in General Santos City and neighboring areas despite the intensified war on drugs by the government.

But Gil Cesario Castro, the regional head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), revealed that Khan was also allegedly linked to local terrorists who had pledged allegiance to the Daesh extremists in the Middle East.

In particular, Castro said that based on reliable information, Khan allegedly supported the Maute Group that laid siege to Marawi City on May 23, prompting President Rodrigo “Rody’ Duterte to impose martial law over the whole of troubled Mindanao. In a related but separate development, Jovenal Azurin, the PDEA chief in the Autonomouos Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) reported the arrest of an alleged member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during a “sting” operation in the town of Pigcawasyan, North Cotabato.

Azurin said Mohammad Tuankali Macalimpas was arrested along with another suspect during a “sting operation” that lead to the confiscation of about $5,000 worth of shabu.

http://www.gulftoday.ae/portal/4846d56c-2a6d-44ea-b146-77c4c7422acf.aspx