PDEA DESTROYS OVER P4.51-B SHABU, OTHER ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES

THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on Thursday destroyed over P4.51-billion worth of shabu and other illegal substances seized by anti-narcotics agents last year as part of the government’s effort to deter suspicions they could be recycled and peddled back on the streets.

PDEA chair Director General Moro Virgilio M. Lazo led the destruction of the more than 725 kilograms of shabu and other dangerous drugs and controlled precursors and essential chemicals  at the Integrated Waste Management Inc. facility in Bgy. Aguado, Trece Martirez City, Cavite.

Included in the 1,288,799.7371 grams of confiscated drugs which were incinerated were the nearly 530 kilograms or 529,704.6 grams of shabu seized by the National Bureau of Investigation in Mexico, Pampanga in September last year.

As ordered by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., more shabu and other prohibited substances seized by the PDEA, the PNP and other law enforcement agencies will be destroyed this year upon order of the court.

Lazo said that apart from the shabu, also destroyed were the 535,352.3195 grams of marijuana, 3,219.0132 grams of MDMA or ecstasy, and 7,423.58 grams of cocaine.

He said that these dangerous drugs and controlled precursors and essential chemicals comprise evidence seized from various anti-drug operations conducted by the PDEA together with counterpart law enforcement and military units.

The pieces of drug evidence were destroyed through thermal decomposition or thermolysis. Exposed to temperatures of over 1,000 degrees centigrade, all dangerous drugs are completely decomposed or broken down and are impossible to reconstitute.

The destruction of the illegal drugs was witnessed by the representatives from the Department of Justice, Department of the Interior and Local Government, local government officials, the PNP and other law enforcement agencies and non-government organizations.