Ilocos drug pushers try new tack

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — The government’s intensified crackdown on illegal drugs has made its peddlers in Region 1 (Ilocos) use "common sense."

Shabu and other contraband substances are no longer painstakingly hidden inside the nooks and crannies of private cars and the courier’s clothes to be shipped to buyers.

Nowadays, drug dealers in the region have resorted to stuffing the restricted items inside ordinary boxes, baby diapers, cans of powdered milk or medicine and ship them through public transportation.

Chief Inspector Christopher Abrahano, provincial director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), revealed these new tactics of local drug dealers during the "Question Hour" of the provincial board last Friday.

Abrahano, together with Senior Superintendent Mario Sandiego, provincial police director, and provincial prosecutor Segundino Ferrer, was invited to the "Question Hour" organized by Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino and board member Amadeo Espino, chairman of the board’s committee on peace and order.

Abrahano said buses are unlikely to attract suspicion, hence they are less susceptible to police checks.

He added that a dealer once admitted doing business "factora style" — the customer makes a trip to Manila, places his order and pays for it in advance through post-dated checks. The supplier then sends the shabu in a package through a bus company plying the route. The customer then picks up the package at the bus terminal and, when all is satisfactory, he clears the check.

Abrahano added that illegal drugs find their way to Ilocos and Pangasinan in mysterious circumstances.

He pointed out that if foreign-branded cigarettes — believed to have been smuggled — are peddled in the remote coastal barangays of Burgos and Dasol towns in Pangasinan, illegal drugs can also infiltrate communities in the much same way.

"If these goods can make their way into our coastal waters unchecked, then there’s a possibility that large-scale smuggling of illicit substances can very well be happening," Abrahano said.

Despite the new strategies of local drug dealers, the provincial police reported a decrease in the number of identified illegal drug groups since last January.

Sandiego revealed that drug syndicates in Pangasinan have been trimmed down from 16 to 10, thanks to the renewed police campaign against prohibited drugs.

As of July 17, there were reportedly 522 listed drug personalities in Pangasinan, while the number of drug-affected barangays stood at 168 or 12.32 percent of the province’s 1,364 barangays.

Sandiego only assumed his post last June 20. Since that time, he reported that 15 police stations have managed to conduct a total of 38 operations and 66 arrests, filed 38 cases in court, and confiscated 77.71 grams of shabu and 12.9 grams of marijuana, valued at a total of P139,228.50.

But Lambino, who is also the executive director of the Pangasinan Anti-Drug Abuse Coordinating Council, feels that there is much room for improvement.

"The police (have to exert) more effort to arrest the drug problem. We will give them some time before passing judgment," he told The STAR.