ILOILO – The Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) claimed an 80 percent drop in the supply of shabu.
This was due to relentless antidrug operations, said Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, IPPO director.
But there were still high-value drug suspects peddling shabu, said Tayaba.
“In recent police operations, drug confiscations were not that considerable anymore. Our men seized very small quantities and this indicated that drug traffickers were now having a hard time marketing illegal stuff,” he said.
But northern Iloilo remained a concern, said Tayaba.
A drug group in the 5th District has down lines in other areas of Iloilo, he said.
“We have updated our list of targets. There are new players and there are also those who resumed their illegal activities after laying low for quite some time,” said Tayaba.
The neutralization these past two years of many high-profile and big-time drug personalities who sourced shabu from outside the region resulted to a drop in the volume of the illegal drug in Iloilo, said Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, regional police director.
He cited the deaths of drug lords Melvin Odicta Sr. (shot to death by unidentified armed men on Aug. 29, 2016 in Barangay Caticlan, Malay, Aklan) and Richard Prevendido (shot to death by policemen on Sept. 1, 2017 in Barangay Balabago, Jaro district) and the subsequent arrest of their underlings.
“Wala na tayong malalaking droga na mahuli dito kasi neutralized na ang mga grupo dito. Kung may mahuli man tayo kakaunti na lang at mga newly identified pa sila,” said Bulalacao.
The campaign against illegal drugs, however, would remain non-stop, he stressed.
Most of the arrested drug personalities in Iloilo revealed their drug sources were Bacolod City and Negros Occidental, said Bulalacao./PN
