PNP vows no letup in drug war, seizes P8.4-B ‘shabu’

Philippine National Police chief Archie Gamboa on Sunday assured the public that there would be no letup in the war on drugs, citing a police unit’s seizure of some P8.4 billion worth of shabu (crystal meth) in less than a month.

In a statement, Gamboa lauded the PNP drug enforcement group (DEG) for its “unprecedented” accomplishment, which he said was “proof that the PNP is relentless in its pursuit of criminals and syndicates behind illegal drugs.”

“The PNP continues to be in the front line of ensuring public safety by going after illegal drugs. There is no letup in our campaign even as we are facing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

Gamboa said the PNP-DEG’s streak started during a May 22 buy-bust operation which yielded P81.6-million worth of shabu, followed by a June 4 arrest of a Chinese national and his two Filipino cohorts and the confiscation of P5.63-billion worth of shabu in Marilao, Bulacan.

Follow-up operations on June 5 in Parañaque City, where two suspects were killed in a shootout, yielded P244-million worth of shabu. On June 9, PNP-DEG operatives seized P1.8-million worth of shabu in Guiguinto, Bulacan, and on June 11, they confiscated P2.5-billion worth of shabu in Cavite.

From June 12 to 13, the police unit seized some P20-million worth of shabu in separate operations in the cities of Caloocan, Navotas, Marikina, Bacolod, and Butuan as well as in Rizal Province.

In an interview aired on Sunday on radio station dzBB, PNP-DEG spokesperson Lt. Col. Cherrylou Donato noted that her unit undertook 27 operations since March, the onset of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine, which resulted in the confiscation of over 1,782 kilograms of shabu worth some P12.2 billion and arrested 38 persons, including six foreigners.

She pointed out that the suspected drug offenders were believed to be part of a big syndicate, “because they can still work on [the illegal drug trade] in the middle of a global pandemic.”

“1,782 kilos [of shabu] is a big thing when this can no longer be sold on the streets. So it’s a big accomplishment on the part of the PNP where we were able to stop street-level sale of that amount of shabu,” Donato said.