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Authorities urged to adopt to evolving ways of bringing in drugs

By Zaldy De Layola

January 12, 2023, 6:35 pm

<p><em>(File photo) </em></p>

(File photo) 

MANILA – Surigao del Norte 2nd District Representative Robert Ace Barbers on Thursday urged anti-drug law enforcers and the public to be wary and vigilant on all parcels coming from abroad that contain self-sealing foil pouches of snacks and other similar products following the arrest of an alleged lady drug importer and the seizure of some PHP89.59 million worth of shabu on Wednesday.

Barbers, who chairs the House Dangerous Drugs Committee, said drug syndicates clearly continue to innovate their methods of bringing illegal drugs into the country. This is very evident nowadays, the reason why the country’s anti-drug law enforcers should always take steps ahead in countering this methodology of drug syndicates.

Ang mga sindikato ng droga ay patuloy na nag-iisip at gumagawa ng iba’t ibang pamamaraan upang maipasok nila sa ating bansa ang mga bawal na droga. Dapat din, sa ating mga anti-drug law enforcers, na parati silang advance mag-isip laban sa mga nagpapapasok ng droga upang di sila mapalusutan (Drug syndicates keep on innovating and trying every means to sneak in drugs into the country. It’s a must on the part of our drug enforcers to be always thinking in advance against any attempt of bringing in drugs to avoid getting fooled),” he said.

On Wednesday, agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group conducted a “controlled delivery” operation after learning of a shipment of shabu, which were concealed in foil snack pouches and was to be redeemed by a local cohort of the drug syndicate.

A controlled delivery, according to the Dangerous Drugs Board, is an investigative technique that allows the delivery of an unlawful or suspect consignment of any illegal drug to be used as a basis for the arrest.

Suspect Jolle Anne Cuer, 25, was collared after she received a package of 44 self-sealing snack pouches containing 13,175 grams of shabu worth PHP89.59 million. The parcel was declared as Grandma’s Chinchin snack packs and shipped to Cuer by a certain Micheal Olanrewaju from Nigeria.

Barbers said the shipment into the country of illegal drugs via parcels is not something new as the syndicates continually innovate their methods on where to hide or conceal their shipment.

Dati rati, ang shipment ng droga ay itinatago sa mga produktong de lata, mga prutas, gulong ng sasakyan, furnitures, equipment, at iba pa. Ngayon ay medyo iba na at sa mga food snacks na nila inilalagay (In the past, drug shipment is concealed inside canned products, fruits, car tires, furnitures, equipment, etc. Now it is quite different, they simply put it in food snacks),” he said.

Kaya sa palagay ko, tuwing may mga parating sa ating bansa tulad ng food snacks, dapat ay maging vigilant ang ating mga anti-drug law enforcers sa mga ito. At dapat advance din sila mag-isip kung saan pang mga produkto pwede itago ang shabu sa mga darating na panahon (That’s why I presume, everytime there are shipments in our country like food snacks, our law enforcers should be vigilant and should anticipate what other products they [syndicates] may use to conceal shabu in the coming days),” he added. (PNA) 

 

 

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