ZAMBOANGA CITY – Philippine authorities are holding a notorious sub-leader of a criminal gang linked to the kidnappings of foreign nationals and wealthy Filipinos in the southern Zamboanga Peninsula.
Insp. Dahlan Samuddin, a regional police spokesman, said Ayub Enriquez was arrested January 16 in the village of Tenan in Zamboanga Sibugay’s Ipil town.
The officer said Enriquez, of the Barahama Ali kidnap gang, has been implicated in the kidnappings of Australian adventurer Warren Rodwell in December 2011 in Ipil town and Chinese trader Li Pei Zhei in September 2014 in Kabasalan town, also in Zamboanga Sibugay.
Enriquez – who is also facing a string of murder charges – was also linked to the kidnappings of several Filipinos Reynaldo Drapeza and Joel Indino and Maricris Cuartocruz.
Police raiders also recovered a .45-caliber pistol and a fragmentation grenade, including ammunition, from Enriquez.
Last month, police forces also captured Hassim Calon, another sub-leader of the gang, in the same village where Enriquez was arrested. Calon was also implicated in the Rodwell kidnapping, which was previously blamed by the authorities to the Abu Sayyaf.
Barahama Ali, a commander of the former rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front which signed a peace accord with Manila in March last year, remains at large. Authorities had implicated Ali to the kidnapping of Rodwell, an accusation strongly denied by the MILF.
Rodwell was seized from his home by at least 5 gunmen disguised as policemen and was eventually handed over or sold by the kidnappers to the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan province.
Rodwell, who was married to a Filipino woman, Miraflor Gutang, was freed on March 2013 after his brother and sisters paid a huge ransom to the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group which is notorious for beheading their victims who cannot pay ransoms. (Mindanao Examiner)
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