Doria: CCPO monitors 3 illegal drug groups operating in the city

Three drug groups are reportedly operating in Cebu City and most of the members are from other places in Central Visayas, according to a police official.

Senior Supt. Joel Doria, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) director, said the common links of these groups are the inmates of National Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City and Cebu City Jail.

Intelligence operatives, he said, discovered that the groups’ connections extend to public servants, including barangay officials.

Doria said that the CCPO will trace what group the nine persons, whom the Fuente Police Station operatives arrested inside a hotel last Monday night, belong to.

A hotel housekeeper discovered the room’s smoke detector was tampered, suspecting the group’s activity inside the room. The hotel’s security then reported to the police.

The suspects have been transacting with their clients online, avoiding the streets, thinking they are safe inside the hotel as the police would have difficulty entering the premises.

Doria said the suspects did not know that the CCPO is regularly coordinating with hotels in the city.

“No matter what innovation they would do, we will be one step ahead of them,” he said of the pushers.

Doria said he told Fuente Police Station Chief Maria Theresa Macatangay to conduct a deeper investigation into the connections of the suspects, who yielded 250 grams of shabu worth P2.9 million. /