BY CALVIN CORDOVA
CEBU CITY — The P81.6-million shabu that was seized in a warehouse in Mandaue City (not Cebu City as earlier reported) came from an international drug ring known as Golden Triangle, the regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Central Visayas (PDEA 7) said.
PDEA 7 Regional Director Levi Ortiz said that based on their monitoring, the 12 packs of shabu were shipped from a foreign country and were supposed to be distributed by the group’s local contacts in Cebu.
“Illegal drugs that are vacuum-sealed and wrapped in Chinese tea packaging usually come from a foreign country,” said Ortiz.
The PDEA 7 discovered the contraband while conducting a routine inspection of warehouses last Saturday afternoon.
The packs of illegal drugs were found stuffed in three separate light-emitting diode (LED) spotlights. The PDEA 7 is already preparing charges against the shipper and the consignee of the cargoes where the illegal drugs were kept.
Ortiz said the PDEA 7 is already monitoring a drug group which was supposed to distribute the seized illegal drugs.
“We cannot disclose their identities yet. We had huge seizures recently because we were able to identify some of the local contacts and we are continuously monitoring them,” said Ortiz.
Ortiz said the cooperation by the public in gathering information has greatly helped the PDEA 7 in unmasking illegal drug peddlers.
“We have a good intelligence sharing with our counterparts especially the police. The community is also a big help and when I say community that includes workers of courier service companies,” said Ortiz.
Ortiz said drug groups have also taken advantage of the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic to distribute illegal drugs to their area of operations.
“They thought that our law enforcers don’t have enough time to conduct anti-illegal drug operations because the focus is on the COVID-19 efforts,” said Ortiz.
Despite the recent confiscation of huge amount of illegal drugs, the PDEA 7 has yet to monitor a shabu laboratory operating in Cebu or in the region.(Calvin D. Cordova)
