The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) announced Sunday that 13 drug suspects have escaped from the agency’s detention cell in Camp Olivas, San Fernando, Pampanga.
PDEA Director General Isidro Lapena has immediately ordered an investigation on the incident to determine how the drug suspects managed to escape from the detention cell without being detected.
The detainees, all deemed as high-value targets, escaped by cutting the bars of their detention cell with a saw, PDEA-Central Luzon director Juvenal Azurin said.
The escapees, he said, were first caught in sting operations that yielded large amounts of shabu, and are facing non-bailable cases.
READ ALSO:
Chinese National Caught With 4 Kilos of Drugs At Cebu Airport
Cebu Woman Yields P4.7-Million Illegal Drugs, Gun
PDEA has deployed a response team to go after the escapees. The agency has also coordinated with the Philippine National Police for immediate arrest of the suspects.
Azurin said those who are involved or personnel with security lapses, will be dealt accordingly if found out that they indeed are responsible for the jailbreak of the detainees.
In Cebu, PDEA agents arrested a suspected drug pusher who claimed that he got his drug supply direct from China.
This was the revelation of PDEA 7 Director Yogi Ruiz following the arrest of Rogelio Romo, 56, a resident of barangay Agus, Lapu-Lapu City.
PDEA agents arrested Romo in a drug entrapment operation that resulted to the seizure of 100 grams of shabu and the subsequent discovery of a kilo of shabu worth P6 million.
Romo was nabbed after he handed 100 grams of shabu worth P300,000 to an undercover agent. Agents also recovered a kilo of shabu placed inside a box of tea that carried the brand Guanyinwang Refined Chinese Tea.
READ ALSO: Malaysia Gets First Private Specialised Clinic for Drugs and Alcohol Addiction
“Guanyinwang is a Chinese tea, the seals are intact. Based on the weighing scale that Romo used and the packaging, we can determine that his distribution is high level,” he said.
Ruiz said he will inform the other law enforcement agencies, especially those in seaports and airports, to monitor illegal drugs considering they have this mode of concealment placing it inside a tea container.
Ruiz told reporters that Romo was a bigtime drug supplier who sourced his drugs direct from China. Romo, however, declined to comment when asked about the source of his drug supply. – BusinessNewsAsia.com