SOME illegal drug syndicates operating in the country’s capital region, where nearly 13-million people live, have dashed to Mindanao, apparently fearing for their lives with the determined campaign against them, officials said Friday.
Interior Secretary Michael Sueno said the drug lords, previously dubbed as untouchables, had been rattled by the magnitude of the government’s campaign which forced them to hide in the country’s far southern island of Mindanao.
“Drug lords who were untouchables before were indeed shaken. Based on the information, some of those in Metro Manila are already in Mindanao hiding,” Sueno said in an interview.
He said the drug lords, blamed for the massive proliferation of illegal drugs, identified as the primary factor for the unabated crimes in the country, were stunned by the degree of police operations that have so far killed at least 1,200 suspected dealers and users.
“They were very powerful because they had the money and guns, they had the people and they were feared by their people, now they are fearful [and] in hiding,” Sueno said.
President Rodrigo Duterte has said drug syndicates operate via remote control, using lowly operators and dealers in their nefarious activities.
Duterte has been blamed by several sectors, particularly Senator Leila de Lima and the Human Rights Commission, for the extra-judicial killings of innocent drug pushers.
Sueno himself saiod “we don’t believe there are extra-judicial killings.”
Duterte instead blasted the drug syndicates as the architect of the killings purportedly to conceal the trail of their operations and the non-remittance of proceeds of the illegal drug transactions.
PNP Chief Ronald dela Rosa earlier disclosed that in view of the infighting among drug syndicates, they are killing each other to cover up their operations.
The decision by the drug lords to hide in Mindanao has put their lives in limbo resulting in the scarcity of supply of illegal drugs.
Dela Rosa said police have doubled their intelligence tracking operations against big time drug lords and expressed optimism for their eventual arrest.