Shabu, pistol, motorcycle seized from 2 suspected 'killers-for-hire'

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The police seized P8,160 worth of shabu, a pistol and a motorcycle without license plate from two suspected “killers-for-hire” intercepted at a checkpoint in Maguindanao del Norte on Friday night.

Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, announced here on Saturday that the duo, Gapor Eskak Marohom, 34, and his 42-year-old companion, Khadaffy Abdullah Kalog, are now locked in a detention facility of the police station in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte.

Nobleza said Marohom and Kalog, both ethnic Maguindanaons, were flagged down for inspection by personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station, led by Lt. Col. Esmael Madin, at a checkpoint in Barangay Kusiong and were immediately arrested for possession of shabu, an unlicensed .45 caliber pistol and a motorcycle bereft of a registration document.

“We are trying to validate now the information relayed to us by confidential informants that these suspects could be involved in a series of deadly gun attacks in recent months in Datu Odin Sinsuat and in nearby Cotabato City. There are people who want us to investigate their possible involvement in those killings ,” Madin told reporters.

Madin said they are to charge the two suspects with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, illegal possession of firearms.

“We shall also coordinate with the Bangsamoro Land Transportation Office in filing against them a separate case for violation of the Land Transportation and Traffic Code that prohibits use of unregistered vehicles,” Madin said.