PDEA receives drug detection equipment from US drug agency

Some P13 million worth of drug detection equipment were donated by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (USDEA) to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Wednesday.

According to PDEA chief Director General Wilkins Villanueva, the equipment will boost the agency's airport and investigation capabilities, especially in the conduct of probe on transnational drug trafficking activities.

The donated pieces of equipment include:

• Three Rigaku handheld drug analyzers;
• Two N2200 handheld narcotics detectors;
• Two Viken HBI-120 handheld X-ray imagers;
• One B & W TEK tactic ID-1064 handheld Raman spectrometer; and
• One Heuresis handheld X-ray unit

These will be turned over to the PDEA Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group.

Villanueva, meanwhile, expressed gratitude to its US counterpart for the said donations.

"PDEA is very grateful to our counterpart, the USDEA, for their continued support to our campaign against illegal drugs, particularly in training and capability building. These equipment will surely enhance the investigation capabilities of our airport interdiction task force," Villanueva said.—AOL, GMA News