No Pangasinense is drug courier – PDEA

By Danny O Sagun

 

DAGUPAN CITY– Nobody from Pangasinan is now facing drug trafficking case in other countries, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

 

But there was one victim from the province of an international drug syndicate in early 2008 who is now cooperating with the agency in the anti-drug courier campaign, said agent Charlton Carame during the KBP Forum at the Philippine Information Agency Thursday.

 

The victim, a woman, was befriended by a Nigerian who was member of the West African drug syndicate who promised her financial benefits as well as marriage. “Nakalaya sya, pero andoon pa rin ang trauma. Noong 2009 nagpunta sya sa atin para tumulong sa kampanya natin,” he said. She was a victim of fly-by-night job recruiters.

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Supt. Geraldo Roxas, who heads the Pangasinan police community relations unit, also told the forum that the provincial anti-drug task force does not have in its list any Pangasinense who is a suspected international drug courier.

 

On the local front, Carame said PDEA agents have coordinated with the police chiefs of this city and Urdaneta City to map out plans to contain the drug problem. The two urban areas are said to be the major drop-off points for pushing shabu in the province. “May mga plano na kami dyan sa sinasabing problematic areas,” he said.

 

He said he was not discounting the possibility of a shabu laboratory operating in the province but so far earlier reports about their existence turned out to be negative. He said a laboratory may be kitchen type or the processing is done in a ship. “Doon na niluluto pero ang drying sa ibang lugar.”

 

Under Executive Order No. 279, PDEA and other concerned agencies like the Department of Foreign Affairs are grouped in task force to combat the growing drug mule problem.

 

Statistics show that in 1993, there were only two drug courier cases. By January this year, the number rose to 689 with 431 females, or 63 percent, and 258, males, or 37 percent. In China, 79 are facing death penalty, six without reprieve and the rest, with two-year reprieve.