PDEA caught 1,821 ‘big fish’ in 2015

A MEMBER of the dreaded Sinaloa drug cartel—a group described as one of the largest and most powerful international drug organizations—was among the 1,821 “big fish” hauled in by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) last year.

The agency said in a statement on Monday that the figure was 30 percent higher compared to 1,402 individuals in 2014.

Among the “high value targets” (HVTs) the PDEA arrested in 2015 were Mexican Horacio Herrera, an alleged member of the Sinaloa drug cartel; Rey Reyniel Diaz Macahidhid and Chinese Chiu Chien Chun who yielded P100-million worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu;” Zorabel Banga, supposed leader of the “Revil Drug Group” in Misamis Occidental; and Revila Domingo Wadin who allegedly headed the “Bela drug group” in the Cordillera region.

High value targets refer to government employees, elected officials, law enforcers, foreign nationals or well-known personalities involved in the illegal drug trade. Also considered as HVTs are members of notorious drug groups and wanted criminals.

The PDEA also announced that it was able to capture 571 drug suspects in 289 “high-impact operations” which included the dismantling of two methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu laboratories, 75 drug dens, a shabu warehouse and two drug “tiangge” (flea markets).

The focus on HVTs and high-impact operations were meant to make “significant dents [in] the country’s illegal drug trade,” PDEA director general Arturo Cacdac Jr. said.

As a whole, the PDEA, in cooperation with other agencies, conducted 24,462 antidrug operations that resulted in the arrest of 19,406 drug personalities.

“This is 44.4 percent more than the operations conducted in 2014. As a result of the increase, the number of arrested drug offenders likewise rose by 40.7 percent from 13,792 in 2014 to 19,406 in 2015,” Cacdac said.