PDEA sees surge in drug trade with D’yang, Jaro fiesta celebs
Despite an intense monitoring of anti-narcotics authorities, known drug personalities have found a way to still trade illegal drugs this coming Dinagyang Festival on January 23 and 24.
“Since they expect that we would be running after them, they have ‘imported’ other drug pushers to do the job for them,” said Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) regional director Paul Ledesma.
He added, “drug syndicates knew that we will be running against known personalities amo na nga pasudlan nila kami sang indi namon kakilala.”
Most of these drug peddlers, he added, will not be coming from local groups but from other areas who will be under the operation control also of this group.
But Ledesma said that they have plans to counter such strategy.
“We strengthened our inter-agency cooperation. To identify these new faces, we met with other members of Area Task Group Delta composed of personnel from PDEA 6, 7, 10, and 4-B. These are regions which have direct access on our area through Ro-Ro or boats,” he added.
Specifically, the workshop pointed drug personalities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.
“These are the people who could travel here by boat and so are those from Cebu and Negros Island. And so are personalities from Masbate area,” he added.
Meanwhile, with the upcoming Dinagyang Festival and Jaro Fiesta on February 2, PDEA is expecting a surge of illegal drug activities.
Recently, a meeting was conducted between PDEA and the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Group (RIADSOG) to plan their anti-narcotics activities.
A conference between the agency and the Iloilo City Anti-Illegal Drugs Task Force was also set yesterday.
“We have mapped out pre-emptive narcotics operations of the week, especially designed to constrict supply and distribution towards the Dinagyang Festival,” Ledesma bared.
By pre-emptive narcotics operations, he explained that these are the operations that will be conducted in order to prevent the supply from reaching the supposed market.
At the same, it is aimed to identify individual who will dispose drugs prior to the Dinagyang Festival.
“On the day of the celebration, we don’t want to mar the activities by running after these illegal drug personalities. Daw kill joy na amon gwa kung maglingasanay kami on the day of the We don’t want to reach that point,” he added.
Instead, anti-drugs group visualize to cripple the drug operations of these personalities since “we already identified the source barangays and major drug personalities that are involved there.”
Ledesma added that as early as two weeks ago, they have subjects of intensified monitoring already.
On the other hand, PDEA monitoring revealed no surge in the supply of illegal drugs.
“Our monitoring revealed nothing but then again, we will also be realistic and practical that we’re no Superman to monitor all of their activities. Basi may nagsulot gidman nga wala namon mabal-an. Maski grabe ang bantayanay namon with the Philippine Ports Authority and the Philippine Coast Guard, we still work with the assumption nga may nakalusot although wala kami na monitor, so far,” he said.
With the kind of preparation they have, Ledesma is hopeful that just like last year, Dinagyang will be celebrated peacefully.
“We hope to maintain it if not better this year,” he said adding that it could be further realized with the help of the police, local government units, and the community.
