Pubdate: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 Source: Philippine Star (Philippines) Copyright: PhilSTAR Daily Inc. 2006 Contact: http://www.philstar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/622 Author: Max V. Soliven Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids) MORE DRUG SUPERMARTS FOUND IN QUEZON CITY AND CALOOCAN SLUM WARRENS By The Way By Here we are bragging about our war against terrorism, when we can't even fight a war against the expanding tentacles of our homegrown drug menace. The February 10 sweep by the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF) led by Police Director Marcelo Ele at Sitio Mapayapa - so ironically named - in Barangay Sto. Tomas, Pasig City, may have forced open a can of worms, but it's only one of the worm-infested centers of drug-trafficking. More super-tiangges exist in Quezon City and Caloocan, it was intimated to this writer yesterday - and are on the verge of being scooped up. The modus operandi of the drug kings is to concentrate their marketing activities deep inside slum areas so that raiding lawmen have to push their way through narrow alleys and mazes to get to the heart of each operation - which has "spy" cameras and other early-warning systems in place. The scandal is that the neighborhood cops are possibly on the take, or actual protectors of the shabu tiangges - which have as their godfathers, as well, some powerful local officials. How could Pasig's ranking officials not have known about the Pasig complex so recently raided? It was going full blast literally behind City Hall - and had been operating there for more than two years according to the informant who tipped off the AIDSOTF. The raid bagged 319 persons (216 males, 44 females and 59 minors). Some of the "customers" caught were not poor - two of them were sons of very rich families. Urine samples and other drug tests have been conducted on most of the suspected "users," but even the cops in the area are being tested, too. The results may be interesting. The seven cops in Police Community Precinct 20 headed by Police Inspector Salvador dela Cruz, as well as the six personnel of the Pasig Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) there, and the other six DEU agents of the Eastern Police District itself have been relieved - and have had to undergo drug testing. The discouraging factor is that the shabu peddled so insolently in the super-tiangge was locally "manufactured," not imported from mainland China or elsewhere - meaning that shabu is now conveniently being mass-produced here, the local product "good" enough to compete with the smuggled imports. Marijuana, too, was available in the drug emporium busted in Pasig. President GMA once again is vowing "all-out" war on the illegal drug trade, particularly in Metro Manila, pledging that no politicians or law enforcers involved in this destructive racket will be spared. She must not be surprised if some of the politicians who ritually go to Malacanang are uncovered to be among the drug coddlers. The druglords have the money, the clout, and the arrogance to buy their way into the corridors of power - or destroy those who threaten them. If there is, at last, going to be a "war" on them it must be total war. Remember the notorious shabu-mass-producer in Pampanga? He was caught with his "factory" in full operation, but his pricey lawyers, combined with the ..er, "clumsy" case presented by the police and the prosecutors, got him off the hook. Sus, it's long been the buzz on the street, that shabu is even being manufactured (perhaps for "home" use) inside the penitentiary in Muntinlupa. With apologies to the late Elvis Presley, we may have our own version here of "Jailhouse Rock." - --- MAP posted-by: Tom