An Abu Sayyaf Group sub-leader wanted for 21 counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention has been arrested in Tungawan, Zamboanga Sibugay.

Reports from the Region 9 police office said joint police and military operatives nabbed Ibni Acosta, an alleged “operations leader” at his hideout in Barangay Poblacion shortly before 11 p.m. on Tuesday.

Acosta, who has a P4.3 million bounty on his head, was arrested by virtue of an arrest warrant issued by the Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 162 for his involvement in the April 2000 kidnapping of 21 people, mostly foreigners, in Sipadan, Malaysia.

His arrest came on the heels of the successful military offensives against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu where two Philippine Coast Guard personnel managed to escape from their bandit captors.