GENERAL SANTOS CITY–Police operatives arrested a long-time fugitive and alleged member of a defunct notorious kidnap gang in Central Mindanao in an anti-drug operation Thursday dawn in a village in Surallah town, South Cotabato.
Supt. Samuel Cadungon, deputy chief of the Police Regional Office-12’s intelligence division (RID), identified the suspect as Danny Andrada, a resident of Sitio Morales, Barangay Centrala in Surallah.
Cadungon said the suspect was nabbed during a search operation at his home at around 3 a.m. based on a warrant issued by Judge Alandrex Betoya of the Regional Trial Court Branch 16 in Kabacan, North Cotabato.
The operation was led by RID operatives and backed by personnel from the South Cotabato police’s intelligence branch, Regional Mobile Force Battalion and the Surallah police station.
Cadungon said the suspect yielded four medium-sized sachets of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu worth PHP5,000 and PHP22,000 in cash believed used in illegal drug transactions.
The police official said they launched the raid following a series of surveillance operations that supposedly confirmed the suspect’s involvement in the illegal drug trade in the area.
“We’re currently looking into his links to drug groups operating in the region,” Cadungon said.
Chief Insp. Jardi Mont Sibal, Surallah police chief, said Andrada was among the 68 prisoners who escaped from the city jail in Lanton, Barangay Apopong here in November 2000 during a daring attack staged by followers of then Pentagon kidnap gang leader Tahir Alonto.
Sibal said the suspect was then jailed for a drug-related violation committed in Banga town in South Cotabato.
Andrada admitted to reporters that he was recruited by Alonto during detention and eventually joined his group after the escape.
Alonto, who had figured in a string of high-profile kidnapping cases in Region 12 and the neighboring areas, died in 2011 at his hideout in Barangay Langgapanen, Sultan sa Barongis town in Maguindanao due to lingering illnesses. (PNA)
