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by Jeff Canoy, ABS-CBN News
We don’t have to look far. Even the drug problem in Metro Manila is already “very serious,” newly installed Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Senior Supt. Bartolome Tobias said.
Tobias, former chief of the PNP-Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force, said one of the biggest drug syndicates operating in the Philippines is the West African Drug syndicate.
Tobias said that the syndicate’s transactions are overseas but recruitment of drug mules happen in the Philippines.
“Madali tayong ma-recruit, another is economic nga, malakas loob ng mga Pilipino (We’re easily recruited. Pinoys will do it because of economic reasons),” he said.
Just this month alone, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) busted a major manufacturing area for the so-called date rape drug gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB).
“GHB has been in use in the US way back 2000, and increased towards 2010. We are suspecting that since 2010, it already entered the Philippine market,” the NBI has said.
The NBI was able to bust a “primary” manufacturer, but did not discount that “[the drug] could be prevailing in other cities.”
This article has been re-published with permission from ABS-CBNnews.com.
Photo: Henry Atuelan, dzMM (Twitter)
