In the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”, drug dealers use all means to conceal and move their stash undetected under the probing eyes and instruments of law enforcement agencies.
Female drug mule: “I’m not working for you.”
Donnie Azoff, stock broker: “Honey, you have my money taped to your (censored bleep). You do work for me.”
Drug dealers, smugglers and money launderers hide behind layers of transactions that expose only the couriers, who are desperate to earn and easily replaced.
The news report of a teenage girl who was caught by police in a rented room in Cebu City where she delivered and sold shabu was not an isolated case.
Her minor age saved her from the detention cell.
That’s why drug syndicates prefer to use young runners.
Poverty is often invoked as the reason low-income families are involved in the drug trade. It’s a good excuse, but not a satisfactory one.
Drug users and dealers occupy all economic ranks, from the out-of-work istambay to the ambitious high-living yuppie and successful businessman.
The menace infects all quarters of society; that’s why the response should be just as wide-reaching.
During last Saturday’s meeting of the Regional Peace and Order Council, the concerns that drew the heaviest discussion was drug trafficking and robberies, after the string of municipal hall burglaries in four Cebu towns and LBC outlets in cities of Cebu and Mandaue last month.
OIC Esperidion Javier of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) revealed that operations of a Muntinlupa-based syndicate had reached Cebu.
Couriers would not meet each other; they would just get instructions by text. To avoid detection by K-9 sniffing dogs, shabu would be hidden in Pringles containers along with other items with strong smells like bagoong or fish sauce to confuse canines and X-ray machines.
PDEA recommended that mayors install security cameras in seaports and other points of entry in the province to detect the entry of drug agents.
But a town or city can only invest in so much technology before drug traffickers employ their own counter measures.
In the recent raid on a drug dealer’s home in Liloan town,the unassuming wooden house had an underground chamber with its own system security cameras and motion sensors to alert the operator of any approaching threat.
The clever ways of crime will continue to evolve. What will eliminate drug trafficking is nothing less than education at the grassroots and the combined efforts of law enforcers and a proactive, vigilant community.