Col. Jemuel Siason, South Cotabato police director (File photo courtesy of the provincial government)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Police units in South Cotabato province have seized around PHP7.2 million worth of illegal drugs in a series of anti-drug operations in the last three months of the year.
Col. Jemuel Siason, South Cotabato police director, said Thursday the illegal drugs were recovered in 109 search, buy-bust and checkpoint operations within the province’s 10 towns and lone city from October to the second week of December.
He said the seized items comprised of 27,101 hills of marijuana plants, 97.9 grams of dried marijuana leaves and 60.9 grams of shabu.
“We have so far arrested a total of 91 suspected pushers, couriers and suppliers, and filed 88 cases in various courts,” he noted in his report to the Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Council.
The police official said the province has remained a “drug consuming area,” with shabu as the top “drug of choice” followed by marijuana.
He said there were no known sources in the province for shabu, which mainly comes from suppliers based in Maguindanao and the neighboring areas.
Several marijuana plantations were discovered these past months in the province’s boundary areas with Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and Davao del Sur.
Citing their intelligence monitoring, he said shabu is being sold in the province at PHP500 to PHP1,000 per sachet, depending on their sizes, and PHP7,500 to PHP8,000 per gram. Marijuana is peddled at PHP300 to PHP500 per bundle and PHP3,000 per kilogram.
Siason said the intensified anti-drug operations are continuing in the entire province in line with the government’s war against illegal drugs.
“Our intelligence monitoring and surveillance are ongoing, and we expect more major accomplishments in the coming weeks,” he said. (PNA)
