Around P4.5 million worth of shabu was seized from a certain Elton John Dela Torre last October 6, 2022, in Barangay Carreta, Cebu City. | Sotero Cabahug
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Close to P18 million worth of suspected shabu weighing 2.6 kilos were seized in several police operations in Cebu City from Oct. 1 to 8, 2022.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for administration of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said that even if they had confiscated a huge amount of illegal drugs in the city, this did not mean that this was already rampant.
Rather, he said that illegal drug proliferation had been a perennial problem and this had only been the usual volume of shabu that the Cebu City police would normally confiscate.
The CCPO seizes an average of at least three kilos of’ shabu’ in a month.
“It doesn’t mean nga nagrampant ang drugs. It means ang ang drugs naa gyud na siya. With the relentless efforts sa PNP and without intervention sa mga connections sa illegalista, continuous atoang operations, duna tay follow-up even the source [ato madakpan],” Parilla said.
(It doesn’t mean that drugs are rampant. It means that drugs are always there. With the relentless efforts of the PNP and without intervention of the connections of the illegal drug personalities, our operations are continuous, we also have followu-up (operations and) even we have arrested the source.)
New drug personalities in Cebu City
Parilla said that they also noticed that most of their monitored and arrested drug personalities were new. This, apparently, is among the innovative ideas of those involved in the illegal drug trade, in continuing this kind of luxury business and for them, big personalities, to avoid arrest.
In fact, they arrested 36 street-level individuals from their recently concluded Simultaneous Anti-Criminality and Law Enforcement Operations last Saturday, Oct. 8. This is out of their 33 total illegal drug operations.
Two of these were listed as high-value individuals.
With the coming holidays and big events in the city, Parilla said that they had intensified the monitoring of other kinds of dangerous drugs, such as those party drugs, that might become a trend among users.
“…especially nga going to December and Sinulog, mao sad ni time makadakop tag other forms of drugs just like party drugs,” he added.
(…especially when it is going to December and Sinulog, that is the time where we can confiscated other forms of drugs just like party drugs.)
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