FIGHT VS. ILLEGAL DRUGS. Pangasinan Police Provincial Office information officer Capt. Renan dela Cruz (left), Police Regional Office 1 (Ilocos Region) director Brig. Gen. Lou Frias Evangelista, and PRO-1 assistant chief of Regional Community Affairs Development Division Lt. Col. Benigno Sumawang during a press conference on Wednesday (March 13,2024). Evangelista said they are strengthening border control to further improve the fight against illegal drugs in the Ilocos Region. (Photo by Hilda Austria)
SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union – The Ilocos Police Regional Office (PRO-1) has revived the checkpoints set-up during the pandemic as it strengthens measures against illegal drugs given the rising volume of illegal substances confiscated since the start of 2024.
"We do not have illegal drugs manufacturing here in the region so the supplies are coming from outside that’s why we need to monitor our borders," PRO-1 director Brig. Gen. Lou Frias Evangelista said in Filipino during a press conference here Wednesday.
Police arrested Wednesday in Malasiqui town, Pangasinan a 33-year old suspect, considered a high-value target, who yielded around 130 grams of illegal drugs estimated to be worth around PHP884,000.
On March 7, a team from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Ilocos regional office collared a 41-year-old male tricycle driver, who yielded some PHP1.3 million worth of suspected shabu, during a buy-bust operation along the bypass road in Barangay Nancayasan, Urdaneta City.
Last year, the Ilocos Police confiscated a total of PHP17.85 million worth of illegal drugs in their 847 operations, arrested around 956 suspects, while 206 surrendered.
PDEA-Ilocos, on the other hand, conducted 703 anti-illegal drug operations, confiscated over PHP3.34 billion worth of illegal drugs, and arrested over 800 drug suspects. (PNA)
