Party drugs, shabu among those confiscated from inmates cells

The atmosphere was very festive.

A band from the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) played disco music while the more than 4,000 detainees of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) were asked to vacate their cells and ushered into the jail’s quadrangle at 4 a.m. on Friday.

While band members sang, around 690 personnel from PRO-7, the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) started to search the inmates cells to look for contraband.

The two-hour search resulted in the discovery of 28 packs of suspected shabu weighing at least 15 grams, 194 marijuana sticks, 100 tablets of suspected party drugs, syringes, drug paraphernalia, close to 200 different cellular phones, assorted jewelry, gadgets, cash amounting to P89,000 and improvised weapons.

Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, PRO-7 director, said that the confiscation of the cash and contraband is an indication that drug proliferation remains to be a major problem at the provincial jail that needed to be addressed.

“We are not finding any fault here. We found a problem and we need to solve it. We are done blaming each other. Kami (We, the) police and BJMP, we realize the problem and we need to solve it,” Sinas said.

Except for jail warden Reynaldo Valmoria, Sinas said no one else from among the jail officials knew of the greyhound operation.

Sinas said that the discovery of close to 200 cellular phones leads him to conclude that drug offenders inside the jail facility continue to operate their illegal drug business with the help of outside contacts.

Sinas said that they will have to investigate how and why drugs and cellphones continue to proliferate inside the CPDRC despite stringent security checks at the entrance.

While none of the contraband were confiscated from the cell of self-confesses drug lord Alvaro “Barok” Alvaro, Sinas said he does not discount the possibility that Alvaro continues to engage in the illegal drugs trade while in detention.

He said that they will also subject the suspected party drugs to laboratory testing to determine its composition and possible origin.

PDEA-7 Regional Director Wardley Getalla said that they will also be conducting a separate investigation on the discovery of the suspected party drugs from CPDRC cells.

Valmoria suspects that some jail personnel are in connivance with inmates in the entry of contraband into the jail facility.