MAMANG PULIS -- NEW Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force commander, Deputy Director General Raul L. Castañeda, has ordered a reinvigorated campaign against “high-value” targets specifically foreign drug rings using the country as a base of operation.

Castañeda, the newly-designated PNP Deputy Chief for Operations, wants his men to particularly zero in on Chinese drug lords known for building secret shabu laboratories and storage facilities in Metro Manila and other parts of the country and the so-called West African Drug Syndicates notorious for recruiting overseas Filipino workers as “drug mules” abroad.

A lawyer-member of Philippine Military Academy Class 1978, Castañeda is no stranger to anti-narcotics operations. In the mid-90s, he was one of the key officers of the defunct PNP Narcotics Command which crushed dozens of major international and local drug rings in the Philippines.

Castañeda was then the head of the NARCOM’s intelligence division which orchestrated secret operations to bust Chinese drug lords who were behind the smuggling of huge volume of shabu or the so-called “poor man’s cocaine” into the country. Dozens of foreign drug personalities, mostly Chinese nationals and their Filipino associates were neutralized by Castañeda’s unit during their stint with the NARCOM.

In an interview, the 3-star police general said he will conduct a performance audit and a thorough background investigation of the AIDSOTF officers and men. He said he will order the transfer outside of the PNPs premier anti-narcotics unit of some men who don’t deserve to stay with the unit.

Castañeda also ordered the AIDSOTF deputy commander, Senior Supt. Edgar L. Layon, to personally supervise all of their ongoing operations.

Castañeda has ordered a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the escape of notorious Pasay City drug pusher George C. Manlangit from the custody of the AIDSOTF Special Operations Unit 2 last May 1.  As a result, the AIDSOTF-SOU2 duty jailer identified as Police Officer 3 Leonardo So has been placed under restrictive custody while the incident is being investigated.

News of Manlangit’s escape came in the wake of a string of anti-drug accomplishments made by the AIDSOTF-SOU 2 headed by Supt. Leonardo R. Suan over the past four months alone.