2 from Marawi with gun, shabu in car arrested in Davao City

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two residents of Marawi City were arrested after policemen and soldiers in a checkpoint in Barangay Lasang in Davao City found P727,000 worth of shabu and a .45 caliber pistol in their vehicle early Saturday.

The Davao City Police Office, in an initial statement, identified the duo as Mahid Mamantar Salic, 31, and his 42-year-old companion, Yusoph Sulit Mocsana II, now together locked in a detention facility.

Radio reports here on Saturday morning stated that Salic and Mocsana were on their way to the Davao City proper from somewhere when they were intercepted at a checkpoint in Barangay Lasang.

Soldiers and policemen found 107 grams of shabu, costing P727,000, and a pistol inside their Toyota Innova.

Their vehicle was subjected to a search when police and Army personnel at an anti-terror Task Force Davao checkpoint along a stretch of the Tagum-Davao Highway in Barangay Lasang noticed that they both seemed nervous and so jittery when they were asked to slow down as they passed through.

Salic and Mocsana peacefully turned themselves in to the uniformed men guarding the checkpoint who found the shabu and an unlicensed firearm in their vehicle.