PDEA all-out against marijuana trafficking
THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency headed by Director General Moro Virgilio M. Lazo has stepped-up its operation against marijuana and kush trafficking as part of their war on illegal drugs this Yuletide season, officials said yesterday.
Around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, members of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Drug Interdiction Task Group arrested a male resident of Quezon City who tried to claim at the Central Mail Exchange Center in Pasay City a parcel from Thailand found containing more than a kilo of kush worth at least P1.407 million, a report to PDEA chair Lazo said.
The resident of Barangay Holy Spirit presented a fake identification card when he claimed the parcel which was declared as containing assorted clothes.
He was immediately placed under arrest by NAIA-IADITG authorities and was turned over to the PDEA for further investigation and filing of criminal charges for violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
The suspect will be charged with violation of Section 4 of Art. II of RA 9165 or importation of dangerous drugs.
Since last week, PDEA agents, backed up by members of the Philippine National Police have accounted for an estimated P15 million worth of prohibited substances following a string of anti-narcotics operations nationwide.
Last December 5, another PDEA-led operation at the CMEX in Pasay City led in the recovery of nearly P13 million worth of smuggled kush and the designer drug called ecstasy.
Twenty-one parcels containing some 7.8 kilos of kush and 1,229 ecstasy tablets which were mixed with tea, wiring harnesses, clothes, books and skin products were recovered during the operation by the NAIA Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group.
On the same day, members of the Seaport IADITG recovered nearly P1.1 million worth of dried marijuana leaves, oil and kush in a reclamation area in Barangay 10, Bacolod City.
Another operation inside a cargo warehouse in Bgy. Subangdaku, Mandaue City, Cebu also on Dec. 5 resulted in the confiscation of some three kilos of marijuana leaves worth P360,000.
In Palawan province, a local courier service on the same day turned over a parcel found to be containing around two kilos of marijuana worth P240,000 found during a routine inspection.
In Agusan del Norte, PDEA and police operatives on Dec. 4 recovered a kilo of marijuana at the mail and parcel section of a cargo transport service in Butuan City.
On the same day, five suspected drug personalities were arrested by PDEA and police personnel in Bgy. Silway 7, Polomolok, South Cotabato during an anti-drug operation which yielded an estimated P300,000 worth of marijuana leaves and oil.
Last December 3, PDEA and police operatives in La Union arrested two “high-value targets” during a sting in Sitio Bataan in Bgy. Pagudpud, San Fernando City which yielded two kilos of marijuana worth P240,000.
The PDEA said the sender and would-be recipients of the recovered marijuana-laden parcels are now being investigated. They will be facing non-bailable charges for violation of RA 9165.
