Officials demolish clandestine Cotabato City drug den

COTABATO CITY --- Authorities on Sunday flattened with sledgehammers and crowbars a semi-permanent drug den at one side of the city’s century-old Chinese cemetery.The operation was led by Vice Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, whose office is presently studying necessary updates on old ordinances empowering the police to address domestic peace and security issues, including the circulation of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) by criminal gangs.Sayadi and the city police learned of the presence of the drug den inside the Chinese cemetery from six wanted drug dependents they caught in the act of sniffing shabu in their hideout in Barangay Rosary Heights 13 here.The arrested suspects led them to the drug den, built along the wall at one corner of the Chinese cemetery.The shabu tiangge” was ran by drug traffickers, among them a former policemen, who was discharged from the service for serious offenses, now subject of manhunt by authorities.The dismantled drug den was so near the Police Precinct II in Rosary Heights District here.Barangay folks have urged Sayadi, a practicing lawyer, to work out the immediate replacement of the chief of the police precinct near what traffickers had used as distribution point for shabu. Senior police officials said plainclothes operatives now have leads on who were behind its operation and that corresponding cases would be filed against them.Investigators recovered drug sniffing paraphernalia and empty plastic sachets containing shabu crystalline particles inside the shelter, prompting city officials to immediately knock it down using carpentry tools.Sayadi, during the campaign period, promised to flex his authority to curb criminal gangs in the city if elected to help the city government sustain the now markedly noticeable improvements in the local economy.Shopping malls, hotels and other business establishments have sprouted conspicuously in strategic spots in the city in the past five years.