By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Police were looking into the possible connection of the two men nabbed with suspected shabu worth around P1.4 million to the Mindanao-based Maute terror group.

The 21-year-old Faisalin Ibra and 42-year-old Norhan Caunda were arrested in a drug buy-bust operation on Tuesday, a police report showed.

Ibra and Caunda are both residents of Marawi City, Lanao del Sur.

Their connection to the local terror group is now being validated at the Philippine National Police central office in Camp Crame.

Bacolod City Police Office spokesman Chief Inspector Sherlock Gabana said the suspects moved to the city last year coinciding to the time when terror threats from Marawi reached Bacolod.

Further background checks are now being conducted, Gabana added.

The Maute terror group uses the illegal drug trade to finance its terror activities. During the Marawi seige, government forces recovered illegal drugs from buildings that the Maute members previously took over.

But Gabana assured residents in Bacolod of their safety, citing that the police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines are closely monitoring Maute’s activities.

He added that the public must take Ibra and Caunda’s arrest “in a positive light.”/DGB, WDJ