NARCOTICS enforcers are searching for the mastermind behind three drug peddlers from whom the authorities seized on Friday eight kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride, or shabu, worth P50 million.
“We don’t think they are the mastermind,” said Philippine National Police director general Ronaldo dela Rosa. “They are just small players, but we will investigate. The important thing is we have neutralized the supply.”
He said the price of shabu has already gone up because of the tight supply. “It is already increasing because they are having a hard time selling them,” De la Rosa added.
He also used the opportunity to show critics that not all drug peddlers are simply killed by the authorities in the ongoing government campaign against narcotics.
“Look, we confiscated many packs of shabu and a gun but they are alive. That only means they did not resist arrest,” De la Rosa said at a press conference in Camp Crame. “You should also recognize that we don’t just kill people here.”
Six kilograms of contraband were seized from Saadodin Badron, a resident of San Miguel, Manila, who was arrested 3:10 p.m. along Marcos Highway in Pasig City after a weeklong surveillance.
The rest of the shabu were seized from Sukarno Bansil and Mahatir Malaco, both residents of Taguig City.
The suspects were brought to Camp Crame by Sr. Supt Romulo Sapitula, acting district director of the Eastern Police.
Dela Rosa said drug dealers were being more careful now that the police had intensified its campaign against illegal drugs. “They are being cautious but no matter how careful they are, they will still be busted,” he said.
Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte himself admitted that the big bosses of narcotics syndicates are beyond his reach because they are in another country.
“I can’t arrest the big fish here because they are not here. They are beyond reach [because] they are in another country,” Duterte said in a speech before Maguindanao leaders, hours after the authorities killed another Chinese national who is believed to be a big-time drug trafficker.
Dela Rosa identified the slain suspect as Mico Tan, who is believed to be involved in the establishment of several illicit laboratories for making methamphetamine hydrochloride, or shabu, in the country.
Tan was killed by drug enforcers who raided another clandestine shabu laboratory at Barangay Lingunan in Valenzuela City at 4:15 a.m. Friday.