By Calvin Cordova
CEBU CITY—Close to half billion pesos of shabu were taken off the streets last year in what was described by the city’s top police official as a highly successful anti-drug campaign.
Sr. Supt. Royina Garma, city police chief, said 39,558.52 grams of shabu were seized during last year’s anti-drug operations conducted by the city’s 11 police stations and headquarters.
The Dangerous Drugs Board valued the drugs at P389,325,586.
“It was a successful campaign. We conducted a total of 1,033 operations and arrested 3,953 suspects,” Garma said.
Of the arrested persons, 2,833 were users while 1,120 were pushers.
The intensified police operations resulted in the deaths of 11 suspects, five of whom were users and six were pushers, Garma said.
The Cebu police also intensified its crackdown on illegal gambling.
Garma said 2,113 persons were arrested in the 1,033 anti-illegal gambling operations conducted last year.
“We were able to curb illegal gambling. There are still existing illegal gambling operations but they done very discreetly now. Most of the apprehensions involved swertres. We conducted 369 operations against this illegal numbers game,” Garma said.
Garma vowed not letup in the campaign against illegal drugs and it showed last Wednesday night when a 25-year-old man was arrested in a drug bust in Barangay Mambaling.
Police identified the suspect as Ivan Matig-a, who was previously jailed on illegal drug charges and was released last Dec. 18.
Police said seized from Matig-a were packs of shabu worth around P2 million.