Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, on Wednesday ordered a thorough investigation into the claim of two arrested illegal drug dealers in Cebu City that they were supposedly transacting with detained illegal narcotics suspects.
In a statement, Eleazar said he has instructed the Regional Director of Police Regional Office 7 to investigate the allegation. Should this be the case, the PNP chief said he wants the perpetrators identified and charged so that this illegal activity can be stopped for good.
Authorities earlier identified the two individuals, nabbed in separate buy-bust operations on Monday, as Benjie Lupian, 42; and Bryan Osabel, 35.
Police said Lupian was arrested in Barangay Duljo Fatima after police seized 1,040 grams of suspected shabu with an estimated market value of PHP7 million, while Osabel was nabbed after being caught with 501 grams of illegal drugs worth PHP3 million.
The two suspects claimed that they were dealing with inmates at the Cebu City Jail.
Eleazar said this is not the first time that arrested drug suspects have claimed that they were transacting or working with detained individuals.
He cited the case when he was still the head of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) wherein convicted drug traffickers at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) were continuously running the illegal drugs operations.
Through coordination with the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) headed by Director General Gerald Bantag and other law enforcement agencies that include the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the military’s Joint Task Force NCR and the National Bureau of Investigation, the operational capability of the illegal drugs syndicate in Metro Manila through the NBP inmates was crippled.
The four law enforcement agencies had set up an intelligence satellite office at the NBP that serves as eyes and ears of the government on convicted drug traffickers inside the detention facility.
Both the PNP and the BuCor also launched aggressive operations inside the NBP to deny the inmates of communication gadgets.
“That is why I am ordering our commanders to strengthen the coordination with these agencies to include the BJMP (Bureau of Jail Management and Penology) through intelligence-sharing in order to deny inmates from running the illegal drugs operations,” he said.
Source: Philippines News Agency