New Bilibid Prison. INQUIRER file photo
MANILA, Philippines — Fifty-one sachets of suspected shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) were recovered by Bureau of Corrections personnel during a raid at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, on Wednesday.
Supt. Richard Schwarzkopf, NBP head, said over the phone that the 51 sachets were found in different locations in Buildings 5 and 8 of the maximum security compound during the search that started around 5 a.m.
He said these were the buildings where members of the Sputnik group have been residing.
“Some sachets we found in the pocket for balls in a billiard table, there were some in a container for plates,” he said.
Asked whether the discovery meant that the illegal drug trade has persisted inside the NBP, Schwarzkopf said, “We have not denied that.”
He added there were “many means to smuggle contraband.”
“This can be through visitors, through other items (that are allowed inside), vehicles,” he said.
He expressed hope the entry of contraband, including drugs, would be “minimized if not totally eradicated” with the issuance of the implementing rules and regulations of the BuCor modernization law, which was passed to, among others, professionalize and restructure the organization.
“If those are passed, (the entry of contraband) can be addressed, even if little by little,” he said.
He said apart from the suspected drugs, the more than 100 BuCor personnel who conducted the raid confiscated an improvised pistol, several cell phones, electric fans, among others.
He said these, however, had yet to be itemized.
Schwarzkopf said this was the eighth raid under Oplan Galugad conducted in the Muntinlupa facility since November this year.
Seven of those eight raids were conducted in the maximum security compound.
The remaining was conducted this month in the medium security compound. SFM
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