Army foils ammunition smuggling attempt in Maguindanao
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 11:45 AM Mon May 3, 2021
1
By:
John M. Unson
Police personnel from Sharif Saydona Mustapha, Maguindanao conduct checkpoint operation following foiled delivery of ammunition for the BIFF. (Photos courtesy of SSM PNP)
MAGUINDANAO --- The military foiled Sunday an attempt to deliver 6,000 rounds of 5.56 millimeter rifle ammunition to a buyer in a stronghold of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said Monday personnel of the 33rd Infantry Battalion intercepted the three men in Shariff Saidona Mustapha town in the second district of Maguindanao.
Members of the BIFF, operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and soldiers are locked in a showdown in Shariff Saidona Mustapha since last week.
The three men were together in a car carrying the boxes containing the ammunition for M16 assault rifles, en route to somewhere in Shariff Saidona Mustapha from nearby Shariff Aguak town in the same province.
“The soldiers guarding a checkpoint along the route they were motoring through noticed them acting jittery and restive after they were flagged down for inspection. The boxes containing the ammunition were found inside their car,” Uy said.
The 33rd IB also impounded their Gray Honda Civic car with license plates YDP 800.
The suspects, whose names were withheld while efforts to identify other accomplices are still underway, are now being interrogated by the police and Army intelligence agents.
Officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region told reporters Monday the three men shall be prosecuted for illegal possession of ammunition using the 6,000 rounds of 5.56 millimeter bullets seized from them as evidence.