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‘War vs meth needs $200K’
The Department of Public Safety needs at least $200,000 to sustain its ongoing war against methamphetamine or “ice,” according to DPS Commissioner James C. Deleon Guerrero yesterday.
“We do have a war against ‘ice’ that we need to be able to robustly prosecute,” he said.
Deleon Guerrero disclosed that he communicated with the Legislature early this week, requesting at least $200,000 in order to purchase equipment for gathering evidence and performing anti-drug operations.
“If you look at the ‘ice’ problem and then you look at what’s happening with respect to the possibility of more weapons to be legalized here in the Commonwealth, and you have a rapidly developing casino industry, a rising tourism [industry] along with the possibility of legalizing marijuana, you tell me what all of these we’re at,” Deleon Guerrero said.
He said the department is hoping that the Legislature will also pay attention to DPS’ 2016 budget submission because that will help them with what they need to do to prepare themselves for all these challenges going forward.
In January 2014, Deleon Guerrero warned all law enforcers in the CNMI to prepare for a “long, expensive, and dangerous war” against “ice” traffickers.
A few days after the commissioner’s warning, joint federal and local law enforcers arrested then-Police Officer 1 Victor Val B. Hocog for allegedly selling “ice” on Saipan.
A month later, joint federal and local law enforcers also arrested several “ice” traffickers, most of them Chinese nationals.
