Authorities in the Philippines recently pulled off the country’s biggest drug bust in history, but the president is not entirely satisfied.
In a series of recent raids, law enforcement officials seized over 2,000 pounds of a type of methamphetamine known as “shabu” worth around $120 million, CNN reported Wednesday.
Authorities also confiscated 290 gallons of the drug in its liquid form.
“It is not only the biggest haul for this year, but so far the biggest in history,” Philippine Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre told reporters at a press conference Tuesday.
Three Chinese nationals and seven Filipinos were arrested in the bust, the result of a four-month operation.
During a raid in San Juan City earlier in December, National Bureau of Investigation and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency operatives seized around 1,235 pounds of shabu, worth about $67 million, at a house and a fast food restaurant, the Inquirer revealed.
Six individuals were arrested in this buy-bust operation.
“I would have shot them dead on the spot,” President Rodrigo Duterte said angrily, according to the Journal Online.
Eliminating drug production and distribution facilities, as well as pushers and addicts, from the Philippines has been a cornerstone of Duterte’s domestic policy agenda since he took office on June 30.
Duterte launched a shoot-to-kill drug war early in his administration, which has so far resulted in the deaths of around 6,000 people.
There are 1.3 million drug users in the country, according to the Philippines Dangerous Drugs Board.
Duterte, dubbed “The Punisher,” earned a reputation as mayor in Davao, where he allegedly ran the Davao Death Squad, a group responsible for thousands of deaths.
Twice this month, Duterte has publicly admitted that he personally murdered suspects.
He said Tuesday that he will not end his war on drugs “until the last pusher is out of the streets, until the last drug lord is killed.”
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