CIDG mulls unit to track drug money

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) is looking to form a unit that would follow the money trail of criminal gangs, particularly drug syndicates.

The newly installed PNP-CIDG director, Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, former chief of the PNP drug enforcement group (DEG) and the Central Visayas police, said his office was eyeing the creation of a financial investigation center.

“I plan to ask the permission of the PNP chief (Gen. Debold Sinas) to create a financial investigation center at the CIDG,” Ferro said in a radio interview on Sunday. “So we can stop everyone involved in [the sale of] illegal drugs through the freezing and seizure of [their] ill-gotten wealth from illegal drugs,” he said.

He noted that during his stint as PNP-DEG director, the unit discovered and froze the assets of a number of drug traffickers.

“For instance in Cebu we were able to padlock two houses, a three-story and a large compound, which were being used in selling illegal drugs. It was through court order,” he said.

In October last year, operatives of the Cebu provincial police office seized P41.5 million worth of shabu (crystal meth) from a house in Barangay Inayawan in Cebu City and arrested two men believed to be working for a narcotics syndicate in the province. INQ