Cebu Province and Cebu City may have eased their quarantine status, but it looks like it might have paved the way for illegal drugs to be shipped undetected.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) believes it to be a possibility after they confiscated millions worth of suspected shabu as a result of their buy-bust operations.
“There are drugs that have entered Cebu. Perhaps, it’s true because we still found and confiscated illegal drugs during our operations, but it’s not that big a volume,” said Director Levi Ortiz of the PDEA-7 in a report by Cebu Daily News.
According to the PDEA director, they are not ruling out the possibility of undetected contraband shipments considering that the stricter restrictions have eased in light of the increasing COVID-19 recoveries.
In addition, Ortiz cited poverty as one of the main reasons why it’s a struggle to curb illegal drugs.
“Drugs is fast and easy money. So there’s no stopping them from selling despite the fear of being jailed,” said Ortiz.
In the meantime, monitoring shipments coming from Metro Manila seems to be most feasible plan as some items from their recent operations suggest that they can be traced all the way from the capital.
Ortiz noted that they were also tailing persons of interest who were reported to have been affiliated with groups involved with illegal drugs.
