PDEA finds no link between two recent major drug busts in Pampanga

An inventory is being done on P3.6 billion worth of shabu seized in a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga on September 27, 2023. (File photo from DOJ)

MANILA, Philippines — Initial assessments reveal a lack of connection between two recent huge illegal drug seizures in Pampanga, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) told a House of Representatives panel probing the issue.

PDEA Director General Moro Virgilio Lazo was asked by Surigao del Sur 2nd District Representative Johnny Pimentel.

Pimentel observed the two operations happened in the same province and the movement of illegal drugs occurred in an interval of only one month.

The question was posed during a House committee on dangerous drugs hearing on Monday.

Pimentel was referring to the discovery of crystal methamphetamine or shabu worth P1.3 billion in an abandoned car in Mabalacat city, Pampanga in August 25.

The lawmaker was finding out if this incident is linked to the seizure of around P3.6 billion worth of shabu, this time from a Mexico, Pampanga warehouse on September 27.

“We all know that there was already a buy-bust, or rather a drug bust, on August 26 (August 25),” Pimentel remembered.

“Regarding the 200 kilos of shabu, and then, on September 27, are these related considering that both were discovered in the province of Pampanga?” he wondered.

“In our initial assessment, your Honor, they are not related,” Lazo replied.

In the first instance, on August 25, local police and agents from National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) discovered 200 kilograms of shabu inside a car parked at a supermarket in Mabalacat’s Barangay Camachiles.

Then, in the second instance, on September 27, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said over P3.6 billion worth of shabu were seized from a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga by Bureau of Customs.

During the operation in Mexico town, illegal drugs were concealed in boxes that also contained a box of chicharon or pork cracklings, dried fish, cases of soft drinks, and sacks of feeds.

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