THE Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 confiscated around P105 million worth of illegal drugs for the whole month of August.
Although he did not find the figure alarming, PRO 7 Director Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas said he was worried that the illegal drug trade was not slowing down.
From Aug. 1 to 30, the PRO 7 also arrested 994 drug personalities in 692 operations. Some 236 operations were conducted by the Cebu City Police Office.
Of the 994 drug personalities arrested, 137 were considered high-value targets, 217 were street-level drug pushers, and 604 were considered newly identified drug sellers who were not on the PRO 7’s watchlist.
During the operations, police recovered around 13.3 kilos of suspected shabu with an estimated value of P90.9 million and 13.28 kilos of marijuana with a value of P15.6 million.
Sinas said they will need to increase their intelligence monitoring to prevent illegal drug suppliers from putting their products on the street.
“If you’re asking, ‘Is that alarming?’ It’s not. It is alarming, though, because the supply of illegal drugs seems to be inexhaustible. What I could always tell the public is that we have no control of the supply since the drugs come from Manila. That is why we were strengthening our intelligence monitoring so we can prevent illegal drugs from entering Central Visayas and arrest the perpetrators,” Sinas said in Cebuano.
Sinas said they also received information that some drug pushers get their supplies from Mindanao.
They also received reports that drug suppliers planned to flood the drug market in Cebu City and Cebu Province after the May 2019 midterm elections.
Due to these reports they received from their counterparts, Sinas has ordered all city and provincial directors in Central Visayas to increase their intelligence monitoring.
He said they had already identified some drug groups operating in Cebu, but he refused to divulge their names as they will be subjects of future operations. (FROM AYB OF SUPERBALITA CEBU / JKV)