THE Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) will coordinate with the Maritime Group to maximize its surveillance against contrabands, like drugs, in major fish ports.
CCPO Director Joel Doria believed that this effort will help strengthen the port patrolling to preempt the possible entry and exit of illegal drugs in the port areas.
“I-ma-maximize natin ang utilization ng ating maritime resources pero normal patrolling lang pero pag may nakita sila, i-report sa atin,” Doria told Sun.Star Cebu.
Doria said that if the collaboration succeeds, he plans to have joint operations with the maritime police for sea patrolling.
With this initiative, the City Intelligence Branch headed by Chief Insp. Cristopher Navida hopes that they will be able to prevent drugs from entering Cebu.
Recently, Melchor Ocarol, an alleged new player in the illegal drug trade and the brother of a Barangay Pasil official, was arrested in Sitio Mahayahay I of the same barangay.
He yielded P14.8 million worth of suspected shabu during a buy-bust.
Navida, in an earlier interview, said that the stash of shabu might have been transported through fishing boats in the area.
“He’s not saying who he’s supplier is,” said Navida.
While Ocarol kept mum on naming his supplier, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 Director Yogi Filemon Ruiz noticed that the packaging of the illegal substance was similar to the P32 million shabu they confiscated from Maria Diaz Del Mar, 28.
Del Mar, was caught inside a condominium unit in Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe two days ago.
Ruiz said that Del Mar sourced her drugs from the National Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.
Ocarol and Del Mar were caught just 13 hours apart and were both believed to be “warehouse caretakers” of the Munti Shabu Group in Cebu.