Ferro: Seized P150M shabu from Myanmar

Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas director, says the 22 kilos of suspected shabu confiscated during a buy-bust operation in Subabasbas, Lapu-Lapu City on October 21, are probably from Myanmar. | Screenshot from a Facebook Live video

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The estimated P150 million worth of suspected shabu, which was confiscated during the October 21, 2020 buy-bust operation in Barangay Subabasbas in Lapu-Lapu City, may have been sourced from Myanmar.

Police Brigadier General Ignatius Albert Ferro, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) director, said they believed that the drugs came from international syndicates because of the packaging of the drugs.

“Based on our coordination with our international anti-drug counterparts, we believe that the drugs were from the drug triangle because of the packaging. It is highly compact, vacuum-pressed. Most of them we believe come from Myanmar,” he said.

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Ferro was referring to the Golden Triangle, an area where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet. The area is known for its illegal drug production and drug trafficking.

According to September 20, 2020 UN (United Nations) News, the drug trafficking and drug production in the area generated profits last year for transnational crime organizations of $71 billion with methamphetamine contributing the biggest share of $61 billion.

Meanwhile, Ferro said they believed that the confiscated shabu was high grade and was linked to the international syndicates, which were among the biggest problems in Southeast Asia.

Based on the initial investigation, Ferro said, that the Triad, a Chinese transnational organized crime syndicate, had distribution channels in Metro Cebu including Cebu City, Mandaue City, some parts of Cebu Province.

Read: P150M worth of drugs confiscated in Lapu-Lapu City bust

Ferro said the P150.3 million illegal drug haul was the biggest drug haul under his term as PRO-7 regional director.

He said that with the confiscation of the drugs and the arrest of a suspected drug pusher, he hoped that this would lead them deeper into the drug supply chain.

Ferro said that the PRO-7 policemen and the port policemen were working together to intensify the monitoring of Cebu’s ports because most likely the drugs were smuggled through these ports.

The PRO-7 chief also said that they were not sure if the recent drug hauls by the police were connected to the Subabasbas drug operation, but they were validating the connection so that they could finally map out the drug supply chain in the region.

Ferro also said that the smuggled shabu was proof that there were no clandestine illegal drug laboratories in the city because drug syndicates would still find ways to transport the drugs into the island instead of transporting them out.

Still, Ferro said, that the problem was bigger because the smuggled shabu was also proof that the syndicates in the country and in Cebu were tied with the international drug cartels.

Ferro said they would continue to supress the distribution of the drugs down to the barangay level so that the market in Cebu would be reduced./dbs