Cops recover P10M worth of shabu from house of ex-Marawi mayor, alleged Maute financier

Police authorities on Friday recovered shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride worth P10 million from a house owned by a former mayor, who is also allegedly a financier of ISIS-inspired extremist group Maute in Marawi City.

GMA News' Jun Veneracion, in a report on Balitanghali, said 2 kilograms of shabu were seized from the second floor of the house of former Marawi City mayor Omar Solitario Ali.

Veneracion said the house was located two to three kilometers from the combat zone, where government troops are battling members of the Maute group and other local terrorists who were trying to overrun the city.

Authorities said the drugs were seized following a "house-to-house clearing operation" in Marawi.

A spot check and an initial test by the PNP laboratory confirmed that the seized items were illegal drugs, the report added.

Ali's name is included in the arrest order released by the Department of National Defense that contains a list of 125 alleged Maute members.

Last year, Duterte had already named Ali as among alleged local government officials involved in the drug trade, or so-called "narco-politicians."

 

Breaking: Police recover at least 2 kilos of suspected shabu from a house owned by a Maute Group financier.

A post shared by Jun Veneracion (@junveneracion) on

Jun 22, 2017 at 8:30pm PDT

The suspected shabu was recovered just five days after troops from the Philippine Army, over the weekend, also recovered 11 kilograms of suspected shabu worth more than P100 million, following an encounter with the Maute group.

Earlier this month, members of the Philippine Marines recovered P79-million cash and checks from a stronghold of the Maute group.

The military later found out that the recovered items in the Maute group's lair in Marawi City may have come from illegal drugs transactions. — MDM, GMA News