If you think the more than P40 million drug bust is mind-boggling, wait for a few months and prepare to be shocked. This was the gist of the statement of the new Bohol Provincial Director.
Newly-minted provincial director Col. Joselito Clarito said that the police are now looking at leads that will focus on drug sources rather than small-time, street-level drug selling.
Clarito made this statement during a radio interview over Open Forum last Thursday.
He said that following the arrest of five persons in two separate anti-drug operations last Monday, the expectation is for the police to break the existing record. Clarito declared in a press conference last Tuesday that Monday’s drug haul is, so far, the biggest in the history of Bohol.
The police are now moving to dismantle the upper levels of the drug trade apparatus. To achieve larger drug busts, Clarito said, the police are continuously doing surveillance and investigation in order to find out the sources of the drug supply in Bohol.
Clarito said during the same radio interview that one of their main goals is to find out where the supply is coming from and to arrest the large-scale drug suppliers and financiers.
For his part, Philippine National Police (PNP) regional director Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro said that it is highly probable that the drug supply seized during Monday’s drug bust may have been from the Chinese Triad drug syndicate. The drug syndicate is operating in Southeast Asia, Ferro said.
Ferro added that based on the tea packaging used for the suspected illegal drugs, there is a huge possibility the contraband may have been supplied by the notorious drug syndicate.
BACKSTORY
Last Monday, five suspects were arrested in two separate anti-drug operations. The suspects are identified as Lelit Dajao, Chellomae Pescura, Junalyn Matura, and Humphrey Cenabre and all of them were arrested in an anti-drug operation in Tagbilaran City. In that operation, the police seized two kilograms of suspected shabu with an estimated value of P13.7 million.
On the other hand, suspect Jaime Dajao was arrested in a follow-up police operation in Talibon. In the operation, four kilograms of suspected shabu were confiscated with an estimated value of P 27.2 million.