'Terror group' member, 2 others nabbed in South Cotabato raid

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 17): 'Terror group' member, 2 others nabbed in South Cotabato raid

Joint operatives arrested a former barangay chair who was tagged as an alleged member of a local armed group sympathetic with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in an anti-drug operation early Tuesday in an outskirt village in Polomolok town in South Cotabato.

Supt. Maximo Sebastian Jr., chief of the Police Regional Office 12’s regional anti-illegal drug special operations task group (RAIDSOTG), identified the suspect as Zaidon Nilong, former chair of Barangay Lapu in Polomolok.

He said two other suspects, identified as Mario Suib and Danny Yang, were arrested during the operation.

The police official said Nilong is supposedly a cohort of Mohammad Jaafar Sabiwang Maguid alias Tokboy, the slain founder and leader of the Ansar Al-Khilafah Philippines group.

Maguid was killed on January 5 in a raid by police operatives at a beach resort in Barangay Kitagas in Kiamba, Sarangani Province.

“We’re currently determining his possible involvement in the group’s previous activities,” he said in an interview over radio station Brigada News FM.

Armed with 11 search warrants, operatives led by RAIDSOTG elements raided several houses on Tuesday in Barangay Lapu in Polomolok.

The search warrants, which were issued by Executive Judge Oscar Noel Jr. of the Regional Trial Court Branch 11-Justice on Wheels in Polomolok, were for possession of dangerous drugs and illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives.

Sebastian said they recovered a hand grenade from Nilong’s possession and a caliber .45 handgun with live bullets from Yang.

Seized from Suib were a sachet of suspected metamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, he said.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=955819