COTOBATO CITY, Philippines — Samad Masgal, alias Commander Madrox of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), was arrested on Wednesday in a hospital in this city on Wednesday.
Masgal was confined at the Cotabato Regional Medical Center on Aug. 31after his left arm was amputated due to an injury.
The BIFF commander has been a fugitive since 2015. He is facing charges for murder, multiple murder, extortion, robbery and drug trafficking in various courts.
The BIFF is reportedly engaged in large-scale drug trafficking in Midsayap and Aleosan in North Cotabato as well as in several barangays in Maguindanao. The group financed its terror activities through illegal drugs.
Juvenal Azurin, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, commended villagers who provided information on Masgal’s whereabouts.