Wanted for high-profile crimes killed in Bangsamoro police operation

COTABATO CITY --- A suspect in a series of motorcycle thefts, multiple murders, extortion, and operation of a drug den who has links with local terrorist groups was killed while his companion was wounded in a shootout with policemen in Datu Odin Sinsuat in Maguindanao del Norte on Thursday.

The 32-year-old Razul Adza was declared dead on arrival at the Cotabato Regional Medical Center here where policemen brought him after the brief gunfight that left his cohort, Ali Mama, 54, badly wounded.

Bangsamoro regional police director Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza told reporters on Friday that combined personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station, led by Lt. Col. Sahibon Mamantal, and operatives from units of PRO-BAR and the Criminal and Investigation and Detection Group were to serve Adza and Mama warrants of arrest in their hideout in Barangay Semba, but neutralized them instead when they pulled out guns and opened fire.

Barangay officials in Datu Odin Sinsuat and this city had confirmed to reporters that the slain Adza and Mama were indeed notorious motorcycle thieves and shabu peddlers and were implicated in the murder of at least seven individuals in the past three years.

Besides their three firearms, the police team out to supposedly arrest them peacefully found three stolen motorcycles, drug-sniffing paraphernalia, and shabu in the house where they resided they also ran as a drug den frequented by several villagers from barangays around.

Photo: A policeman inspects one of three stolen motorcycles found in the hideout in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte of Razul Adza and Ali Mama. (From PRO-BAR)