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Four cops pulled out from DEA Task Force
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Posted on Oct 20 2008
Four Saipan police officers were pulled out from the Drug Enforcement Administration NMI Task Force effective last Sunday, according to the Department of Public Safety.
DPS spokesperson Lei Ogumoro said the four police officers would be assigned to the DPS Criminal Investigation Division.
“At CID, the [four officers] will still be doing narcotics operation,” Ogumoro said.
Asked whether the pullout from the DEA Task Force would hamper anti-drug operation in the CNMI, a police official said, “That has to be seen.”
The official said that, with the pullout, police officers would no longer be able to use the DEA laboratory and its high tech equipment.
A DEA Task Force member who requested anonymity said they could not do anything but to follow the pullout order.
The CNMI government recently withdrew local enforcement officers composed of six police officers and one customs officer from the DEA Task Force.
Gov. Benigno Fitial ordered the pullout after local companies that bring Chinese tourists into the CNMI protested over DEA’s actions that subjected passengers of a Shanghai Airlines flight to intensive body searches last Oct. 4.
Finance Secretary Eloy Inos had stated that the withdrawal will continue until the CNMI government gets a full explanation of the Oct. 4 incident from DEA.
