Three individuals, including a Russian national, were caught with P240,000 worth of ‘shabu’ in an anti-illegal drugs operation in Purok 6, Barangay Basdio, Loon in Bohol province on Tuesday afternoon, March 12, 2024. | PDEA-7 Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Around P22 million worth of suspected shabu was confiscated by authorities during a 3-day Simultaneous Anti-Criminality Law Enforcement Operation (SACLEO) in Central Visayas.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said that authorities arrested a total of 180 drug suspects from March 10 to March 12, 2024 throughout the region.
READ: P3.8M shabu seized, 2 HVIs nabbed in Cebu City drug busts
Within this operations, 3,305.10 grams of suspected shabu with a Standard Drug Price (SDP) of P22,474,680 were confiscated.
Along with it were 32 grams of marijuana valued at P3,840.
Pelare claimed that the result of their 3-day operation showed that the tracking of illegal drug supply by their intelligence operations had been effective.
However, it is also an indicator that the region still faces challenges when it comes to illegal drugs and the police is in need of community cooperation.
“This tells us how efficient our intelligence operations are in tracking the supply of illegal drugs, but we must also take note nga usa pud ni ka indicator nga naa pagyud tay challenge as far as illegal drug is concerned (that this is one of the indicators that there are still challenges as far as illegal drug is concerned),” Pelare said.
READ: Bohol: Shabu worth P172.7M seized in 14 months
“We will take this opportunity to call on our community members to continue helping your police and PDEA in reporting kaning mga nagpayuhot sa illegal drugs ug kining mga naggamit sa illegal drugs (these illegal drug peddlers and these illegal drug users),” Pelare added.
Apart from their operations against illegal drugs, 13 individuals were also arrested for possession of loose firearms.
This resulted in the confiscation of 139 unlicensed firearms.
Pelare said that the confiscation of unlicensed firearms was their strategy to decrease the number of firearm-related incidents such as shooting incidents and robberies with the use of firearms.
Pelare also said that police were strengthening their fight against illegal gambling.
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He said that they arrested 327 individuals for illegal gambling and recovered a total of P29,606 betting money.
For the serving of warrants of arrest, Pelare said that authorities arrested 120 wanted persons, wherein 3 were categorized as Most Wanted Persons (MWP).
Moreover, Pelare provided assurance to the public amidst the challenges in combating illegal drugs in Central Visayas.
“Although naa tay challenges sa illegal drugs diri sa Central Visayas, what we can assure the public is that we know who are those involved and we are conducting operations against high-value individuals,” he said.
(Although, we have challenges in illegal drugs here in Central Visayas, what we can assure the public is that we know who are those involved and we are conducting operations against high-value individuals.)
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