BAGUIO CITY– Combined police operatives and anti-narcotics agents uncovered the various modus of drug syndicates and couriers in transacting illegal drugs to mislead government forces in the implementation of the government’s aggressive anti-drug campaign.
Gil Ceasario Castro, regional director of the Cordillera office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-CAR), stated that the successive arrests done on a number of drug couriers and the interrogations on them yielded vital information on the modus of the drug couriers in their clandestine transactions to pursue their illegal trade amidst the efforts of the government to curb the illegal drug sale and use in the country.
He disclosed that marijuana produced in the Cordillera is in demand among drug users in most parts of the country that is why drug couriers are doing everything possible to ship the illegal hemp from the hinterlands to the transshipment area in Metro Manila.
Further, he added that the PDEA-CAR, in coordination with concerned law enforcement agencies, are looking into the use of social media as one of the modes of transaction in the illegal drug trade to be able to neutralize the drug suspects from using the different platforms to be able to successfully market illegal drugs.
Castro stipulated that the concerned law enforcement agencies are also looking on the use of the tour operators as a possible medium in the distribution of illegal drugs in the different parts of the country to craft strategies to prevent the further spread of illegal drugs that runs counter to one of the flagship projects of the present administration.
According to him, the successful anti-drug campaign of the present administration has contributed in significantly reducing the various crimes committed in all corners of the archipelago that helped in improving the peace and order of communities.
He assured the various sectors that the PDEA and the various law enforcement agencies will continue to aggressively implement the marching orders to curb the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country to make the country a peaceful place by the end of the terms of President Rodrigo Duterte by June 30, 2022.
The Cordillera has been identified by the PDEA and other law enforcement agencies as the primary producer of high-grade marijuana.
Director Castro asserted that the PDEA will not buckle down in enhancing their anti-illegal drug operations in identified marijuana-producing areas in Benguet and Kalinga to help in reducing the supply of the illegal hemp in the market and compel cultivators to shift to planting high value crops that will add up to the country’s food security in general. By HENT
