THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) arrested a total of 1,612 high-value drug personalities nationwide in 2018, PDEA director Aaron Aquino said on Tuesday.
Aquino said the 1,612 arrested high value drug personalities included 53 foreign nationals, 57 elected officials, 15 uniformed personnel, 43 government employees, 200 drug group leaders/members, 14 armed drug group members, 182 drug den maintainers, 10 wanted persons, 146 target-listed, 407 other HVTs, and 485 drug personalities who were arrested in high- impact operations conducted in 2018.
Aquino said high-value drug personalities play a vital role in the proliferation of illegal drugs on the streets.
As defined by the agency, a person is considered as a high-value target drug personality if he/she is involved in illegal drug activities and falls under the following list and classification: priority targets; priority drug groups; government officials, either elected, government employee or law enforcers; foreign nationals; members of African Drug Syndicates (ADS); target-listed personalities; wanted listed personalities; celebrities and other well-known personalities and members of armed groups.
“Involvement of foreign nationals greatly contributes to the spread of illegal drug trade in the country. Majority of the foreigners arrested for drug-related offenses were Chinese nationals with 18 or 32.37 percent,” Aquino said.
Among the arrested foreign HVTs were the five Chinese nationals, allegedly involved in running a drug manufacturing laboratory.
They were arrested during separate raids in 2018 that led to the dismantling of three drug laboratories in Batangas and Malabon.
The arrested foreigners were alleged members of Dragon Wu Syndicate which is connected to the infamous “Golden Triangle" which is known as the world’s foremost drug-producing region operating near the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.
“Public servants and government workers are expected to lead the country in upholding the law. However, it is alarming to note that a handful of them are involved in the illegal drug trade,” Aquino said.
Meantime, of the 115 government employees arrested during the said operations, the highest elected official is a Board Member, while the highest law enforcer is a member from the Philippine National Police (PNP) has the rank of Senior Police Officer 2 (SPO2) and a chief, legal officer of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for government employees.
He said local drug groups on the other hand is responsible for the distribution of illegal drugs on the streets. They usually operate with transnational drug groups in distributing illegal drugs in the entire country.
“The arrest of these high-value targets established their participation in the bulk distribution of illegal drugs in the country resulting in the high-volume drug seizures,” said Aquino. (SunStar Philippines)