Junior police personnel urged to join drug busts
Police officers with the ranks of PO1 to PO3 are encouraged to join operations against narcotics so that drug enforcement units (DEUs) can focus more on catching high-value targets, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Senior Supt. Royina Garma said.
This, after a team from the Pardo Police Station confiscated P6 million worth of illegal drugs from an alleged drug personality in Barangay Mambaling.
“My instructions to my station commanders are to continue in the intensified police operations and to encourage PO1 to PO3 to become arresting officers so that the DEU could focus on identifying drug personalities, conducting surveillance, to confirm and validate the reports of drug users and pushers in drug den. Di na mapupuno ang schedule nila (DEU) as arresting pag mag rotate,” Garma said.
She said that there are still many high-value targets in Cebu City.
“There’s so many of them that when we arrest one, that person is immediately replaced. We need to identify the replacement,” she said in Tagalog.
Reneil Monceda, 28, a high-value target, was caught during a drug bust in Sitio Lawis, Barangay Mambaling last Saturday night.
“We need to interview the suspect again at kung magkaroon siya ng voluntary disclosure sa source niya (and if he voluntarily reveals his source), better. So that we will be able to identify and locate the place kung saan niya nakuha (where he got the drugs). He mentioned so dun tayo tututok ngayon (we will focus on the place he mentions). So yung DEU ng main office and the DEU of that specific station are now working to identify the source,” she said.
The city director said that operatives can conduct anti-illegal drug operations outside of their jurisdiction as long as they coordinate with the police station.