SOME P30.29 billion worth of illegal drugs were seized across the country during the first six months of the year, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said yesterday.
During the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing, PDEA spokesman Joseph Frederick Calulut said they conducted 19,765 anti-drug operations during the period.
“If we are going to talk about the first half of the year, we were able to seize and confiscate around P30.29 billion worth of illegal drugs,” said Calulut.
Calulut said the seized illegal drugs were composed mainly of shabu, marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy.
He said they seized 4.3 tons of shabu this year, compared to 1.7 tons of shabu seized during the same period last year.
Calulut said the illegal drugs they seized this year included the 1.4 tons of shabu found by fishermen in the waters of Central Luzon, Ilocos and Cagayan Valley in May and June.
“We have arrested 26,051 individuals and out of these, 1,551 are high-value targets,” said Calulut.
“When we say high-value targets, these include foreigners. We arrested 27 foreigners and eight of these foreigners are Chinese,” Calulut also said.
Police seized P4.8 million worth of suspected shabu and nabbed three high-value individuals (HVIs) in a buy-bust operation in Marikina City early yesterday.
Brig. Gen. Aden Lagradante, Eastern police district (EPD) director, said the suspects were brought to the Special Operations Unit (SOU) headquarters of the PNP-DEG in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.
They will be charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Seized from them were 3,239 grams of high-grade marijuana or kush and 30 grams of dried marijuana leaves with a total street value of P4,862,100. – With Christian Oineza
