DAVAO CITY – Seven suspected drug dealers were killed and several others – including a Korean national – were arrested during a raid by authorities in a village in the outskirts of the city Friday.
Initial report from the city police office said the anti-drugs operation was conducted in Muslim Village in Barangay Ilang here early morning Friday.
Six of those killed were identified as Dark Abdul Nawang, Ronel Morque, Jainal Solani, Musa Sailamay, Faizal Albani, and Wahib Sailili. One slain suspect remains unidentified, he added.
“They put up a fight and were killed in the process,” Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said over a radio station here when asked on the incident.
Duterte said the raid, conducted by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Southern Mindanao, the police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, and the Davao City Police Office, was part of the intensified campaign against the proliferation of drugs in the city.
The raid came after Duterte offered reward to those who can give information on drug dealers operating in the city.
Earlier, he said the drugs coming into the city might have been sneaked in through smuggled rice shipments from neighboring Asian countries.
Senior Superintendent Joel Pernito, East Mindanao Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said the suspects were killed during a shootout with members of the raiding team.
Pernito said they confiscated drug paraphernalia and undetermined amount of shabu or metamphetamine hydrochloride.
Authorities also recovered 13 firearms, live ammunitions and components used in explosive devices.