Following his capture earlier this week at Poblacion, Barangay 1, Hinoba-an, 65-year-old Arturo Balume, Sr., the leader of the Balume drug group, based in San Rafael, Iloilo, affirmed links to two Iloilo mayors, former Sara Mayor Neptali Salcedo and incumbent Estancia Mayor Rene Cordero.

According to Balume, he worked as security personnel for both officials, along with being granted authority over a fishing port by Cordero..

Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) director, Police Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, said Balume is wanted for the murders of Ronaldo Estandarte and Roberto Magarso, bodyguards for Cordero’s opponent in the previous mayoral election, Melina Requinto.

The suspect denied working as a hitman for the mayor.

Police captured Balume, who is the third most wanted drug suspect in the Western Visayas, after tracking him and conducting an operation, last Wednesday evening.

Authorities spotted the suspect and his son, 27-year-old Arturo Balume II, a resident of Barangay Gargato, Hinigaran, in their vehicle and immediately apprehended both of them.

A search of the vehicle yielded 10 small sachets of suspected shabu, several .38 caliber and .45 caliber bullets, a .45 caliber magazine, a .38 caliber pistol, a .45 caliber pistol, and a mobile phone.

In a radio interview with Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo, Tayaba believed Balume is both acting as a drug runner and overseeing a gun-for-hire operation in Negros Occidental.

The elder Balume has since been transferred back to Iloilo to face his criminal case, while his son faces illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, and illegal drug charges./DGB, WDJ