NO ILLEGAL drugs, weapons and gadgets were found during separate surprise greyhound inspections conducted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA 7) at the Cebu City Jail Male dormitory and at the Medellin District Jail in Medellin town, northern Cebu on Tuesday dawn, Dec. 6, 2022.

Unlike the previous operations where narcotic agents seized contraband, PDEA 7 information officer Leia Alcantara said during the two operations, they had not confiscated any except for a small amount of money from persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) in the Medellin jail, which is considered illegal because inmates there are only allowed to carry coupons issued by the jail as a form of money.

Alcantara said they conducted the operations based on the request of the two jail facilities.

When asked if somebody might have leaked the information inside the jail, making the inmates aware of the incoming raid, Alcantara said she does not suspect the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) of doing it.

One of the police officers from the Central Visayas who refused to be named told SunStar Cebu that currently, the police could not immediately conduct the “Operation Greyhound” because they still have to obtain permission from the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

The policy was made following the bloody raid on November 5, 2016, when Albuera town mayor Rolando Espinosa was killed inside the detention cell of Baybay Leyte Provincial Jail. (AYB / TPT)