CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 12, 2014) – Philippine authorities arrested a gunsmith on Monday and seized a cache of weapons and assorted gun parts from his shop in Marawi City in the southern province of Lanao del Sur, officials said.
Officials said military and police units swooped down on the illegal shop in Lumbac Madaya village and arrested its owner Hadji Ali Cader Sarosong. Among the guns seized from gunsmith were machine guns and grenade launchers, including .50-caliber sniper rifles, said Captain Jefferson Mamauag, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division.
“The arrest of the gunsmith and the recovery of the weapons and assorted gun parts are the result of a long surveillance operation. Sarosong is now under the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation,” he told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Colonel Glen Macasero, commander of the 103rd Infantry Brigade, supervised the operation launched by the Philippine Army, the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation that led to the arrest of Sarosong, according to Mamauag.
It was not immediately known if Sarosong was selling illegal weapons to rebel groups and criminal syndicates. (Mindanao Examiner)
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