BAGUIO CITY – Combined police operatives and anti-narcotics agents were able to arrest some seventy four drug personalities in various anti-illegal drugs operations last year.
Based on the report of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO), 6 drug personalities in the city were subsequently arrested due to the intensified anti-illegal drug operations of the local police force this year wherein 2 of the arrested drug suspects were classified as high value targets.
The BCPO report added that the positive drug buy bust operations in the city resulted in the confiscation of some 2.48 grams of shabu and assorted drug paraphernalia.
Charges for violation of the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Law were filed against the arrested drug personalities while the confiscated illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia were taken by the operating troops for evidentiary purposes to beef up the cases against the arrested drug suspects.
Since the assumption into office of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016, the government embarked on an aggressive anti-illegal drugs campaign that resulted in the surrender of thousands of drug users while drug suspects who opted to fight it out with the apprehending law enforcers were eventually killed in the legitimate operations.
Baguio City remains to be a transshipment point of shabu from the lowlands to the different parts of the highlands and marijuana from the remote villages of the region to the lowland communities through the years.
Police personnel and anti-narcotics agents expressed their gratitude to concerned citizens who continue to provide them with vital information that resulted to the arrest of drug personalities involved in the illegal drug trade and the confiscation of illegal drugs from them, saying that the cooperation of the public plays a major role in curbing the proliferation of illegal drugs in the city.
Police authorities admitted that one of the reasons on the drastic reduction of crimes in almost all parts of the country is the enormous success of the government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign considering that one of the causes of the commission of crimes is related to the use of illegal drugs by the arrested suspects.
Law enforcers continue to solicit the active participation of the public in their peacekeeping, anti-criminality, anti-terrorism and anti-insurgency campaigns because the vital information that they always provide them greatly help in deterring the occurrence of crimes or event prevent the same because appropriate operations will already be put in place before the commission of such crimes that pose serious threats to life and limb.
Police officials claimed that drug suspects who are arrested while pursuing their illegal trade in the city are not actually residents of the city considering that most of those drug personalities already surrendered to the police at the height of the government’s aggressive anti-illegal drugs campaign, thus, the need for people in the different barangays to help in monitoring the presence of drug suspects in their areas so that they will be apprehended and will be made to answer for the crimes they have committed.
By Dexter A. See
