High-powered Guns Seized in Tacurong City, Philippines
Authorities in Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat recovered 18 high-powered firearms when they raided the 900-hectare palm oil plantation in Tacurong City Tuesday morning, a police official said.
Sr. Supt. Danilo Peralta, provincial police director of Sultan Kudarat, said they confiscated twelve 12-gauge shotguns; three M1 carbines; one 9-mm pistol; and two caliber .38 revolvers.
Peralta said they raided the plantation a week after two groups of security guards manning the place exchanged fires for more than an hour. Two guards, each belonging to the warring groups, were killed during last week’s fighting while two others were wounded.
The raiding teams — composed of the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Police Office, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Tacurong City Police, and 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, were armed with at least four search warrants issued last Monday by Judge Jordan Reyes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 19 in Isulan town, also in Sultan Kudarat province.
Authorities also arrested Eleazar Gallardo, former chairman of the Mindanao Pioneer Plantation Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative (MinPARBenCo); and Rey Aranas of the Exodus Security Agency, where they recovered the items inside their premises.
Authorities confiscated from Gallardo two Carbine rifles; one Armscor shotgun; one 12-gauge shotgun; and several ammunition for Carbines and shotguns.
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