North Cotabato PNP nab 30 drug pushers, gambling ushers, carnappers

KIDAPAWAN CITY --At least 30 persons suspected to be involved in drug trafficking and in illegal numbers game operations were arrested when the Cotabato Police Provincial Office (CPPO) launched its province-wide, One-Time, Big-Time” operations against all forms of criminality, Thursday. Of these, 13 were apprehended for peddlingsuspeced methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, a known illegal drug, in towns of Pigcawayan, Alamada, Pikit, Kidapawan City, and Makilala. Authorities identified two of the suspected shabu suppliers as Alvin Aleman, 39, of Aleosan, North Cotabato, and Rashid Mama Ariraya, 22, of Pikit, also in North Cotabato. Senior Superintendent Alex Tagum, CPPO provincial director, said the suspects engaged them in a shoot-out when they raided two known drug dens in Barangay Batulawan in Pikit. None was hurt during the shoot-out. The suspects were armed with high-powered firearms but they were outnumbered, according to Tagum.At least 200 fully-armed policemen swooped down Barangay Batulawan, around 2 p.m., on Thursday. They recovered from Aleman a fully-loaded Remington pistol, a magazine, and two sachets of shabu that weighed at least four grams with an estimated value of P32 thousand. Seized from Ariraya a shotgun without a serial number, 12-gauge shotgun, and a gram of shabu which amounted to P8 thousand. In Midsayap town, the police raided at least 16 outlets of Last Two, an illegal numbers game, and apprehended 16 gambling ushers.Seized from them were bet money, which amounted to P22 thousand and several gambling paraphernalia. Meantime, authorities also impounded at least 250 undocumented motorcycles and passenger tricycles during the Oplan Lambat Bitag Sasakyan and Oplan Sita, along the national highway in Midsayap, also on Thursday. Three of these vehicles, police said, were believed stolen. One of these stolen motorcycles, a Honda XRM 100cc with plate number MK 1916, was believed owned by a radio reporter from Cotabato City and bought by a certain Allan Bolique of Midsayap, North Cotabato. Bolique, according to Tagum, would be charged of violating Anti-Fencing Law for buying a stolen property. Tagum said their operations would continue until they get ‘big fish’ or big-time suppliers of shabu and financiers of Last Two operating in North Cotabato. He believed in a maxim that, for a school of fish to die they will have to dry up the river, which is their source.”