Basilan mayor held for drugs as he was boarding plane at NAIA

ZAMBOANGA CITY—A ranking police official on Tuesday confirmed the arrest of a Basilan mayor, who is on President Duterte’s drug list.

Senior Superintendent Fergen Torred, Western Mindanao police chief, said Jamar Abdula Mansul, mayor of Hadji Muhtamad town in Basilan province, was arrested as he was boarding a plane from Manila to Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

“I received the confirmation from the Department of National Defense (DND) stating that Mansul was apprehended by personnel of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) at the NAIA Terminal 1 on Monday morning,” Torred said.

Mansul, he said, was also the 546th personality ordered arrested under Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s Martial Law Instructions No. 1 issued on September 4, 2017.

The order targeted terror and drug suspects.

Torred said Mansul was among the top 3 drug lords operating in Basilan and had been considered a high value target in the police’s anti-drugs operation.