COTABATO CITY (PNA) – About P30 million worth of confiscated illegal drugs from previous operations were destroyed in a facility in Maguindanao del Norte on Monday, October 16, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM) said.
ANTI-narcotics agents prepare the seized illegal drugs that were used as evidence against drug personalities before putting them inside the huge incinerator of Lamsan Trading warehouse in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte for destruction on Monday, October 16. More than P30 million worth of shabu and other illegal drugs were destroyed. (PDEA-BARMM FB)
In a report on Tuesday, October 17, PDEA-BARMM Director Christian Frivaldo said the illegal drugs were burned in a huge incinerator of Lamsan Trading in Barangay Simuay, Sultan Kudarat town of the province.
“The seized drug evidence was destroyed through thermal decomposition, or thermolysis, which involves breaking down chemical compounds with the use of tremendous heat,” he said.
Frivaldo said the destruction of dangerous drugs conforms with the guidelines set concerning the custody and disposition of seized dangerous drugs under Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Burned were 3,584 grams of shabu with an estimated street value of P24.4 million; 6,781 grams of marijuana worth P814,000, and 947 grams of cocaine amounting to P5 million.
Also destroyed were expired medicines.
“The public display of destroying illicit drugs is PDEA’s way of ensuring that they are destroyed totally and not being peddled back to the streets by law enforcement authorities,” Frivaldo said.