DAVAO CITY — Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 11 agents apprehended a total of 549 drug users and pushers in first semester this year.
PDEA 11 Regional Director Emerson Rosales said the arrests were made in 366 operations in the first half of the year, and confiscated 3.3 kilos of shabu and nine kilos of marijuana with estimated street value of P3.8 million.
The same period last year, PDEA confiscated 1.7 kilos of shabu only, while a higher volume of marijuana was confiscated with 14 kilos.
Rosales said that they are “targeting the main groups and sources of illegal drugs.”
“On a national level, there is another supplier going in the country. So that is why there is an increase of supply,” he said.
He said that the supplies in the city came from Central Mindanao which also got their supplies from Metro Manila.
Rosales added that in Davao region, 40 percent of the barangays are considered “drug-affected”.
“Drug affectation has categories. If one barangay has one drug user, the Dangerous Drug Board (DDB) will categorize this as a drug-affected barangay,” he said. (Diana C. Tomale/davaotoday.com)
