Marawi illegal gun ammunition dealer busted

COTABATO CITY ---- The police seized more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition of assorted calibers from an illegal dealer entrapped Saturday in Marawi City.

The suspect, Omar Romandiar Manalusug, 32, is now locked in a detention facility of the Marawi City Police Station, awaiting prosecution. 

Brig. Gen. Allan C. Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters Tuesday Manalusug fell in an entrapment operation right in his store in Barangay Panggao Saduc in Marawi City by police personnel disguised as civilian gun enthusiasts. 

Manalusug did not have any authorization from the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police to sell ammunition and gun accessories, officials of the Marawi City Police Station and the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office confirmed in a report to PRO-BAR Monday. 

Police agents confiscated from him .45 and .40 caliber and 9 millimeter pistol rounds and high-velocity 5.56 millimeter rifle ammunition. 

Rifle and pistol magazines were also found inside his store where he peddled kitchen wares and other goods as front for his illegal ammunition business.  

“We ought to thank the confidential informants and local officials who supported the sting that led to his arrest,” Nobleza said.

Intelligence agents from the Army’s 103^rd Infantry Brigade and the Lanao del Sur PPO are together trying to validate tips by informants about Manalusug’s alleged links with local terror groups operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.