ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/10 March) – Joint police and military forces arrested two suspected members of a kidnap-for-ransom-group in a raid over the weekend at a safe house in Zamboanga Sibugay province.
Chief Insp. Ariel Huesca, Police Regional Office-9 information officer, identified the arrested suspects as Alvin Prontoso and Hajer Mohammad, both of Naga, Zamboanga Sibugay.
Huesca said the suspects were arrested in a raid around 5:30 a.m. Saturday at the safe house of suspected kidnap group leader Mamay Aburi in Barangay Tenan, Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay.
Mohammad also has standing warrant of arrest for frustrated murder and murder, he said.
Aburi, however, managed to elude arrest, the police official added.
Huesca said the raid came on the heels of reports the suspects were planning to carry out another kidnapping anytime this week.
He said Aburi’s group has been tagged as behind several kidnapping and extortion activities in the province including the January 11, 2014 kidnapping of Alexa De La Cruz in barangay Kima, Payao town.
He said the troops confiscated from the suspects’ safehouse two fragmentation grenades, an M-14 rifle, an M-16 Armalite rifle and a Garand rifle, several ammunition, a detonating cord, and three motorized bancas. (MindaNews)