Acting governor Ralph DLG Torres is supporting the call to give more funding to law enforcement agencies particularly the Division of Customs in light of a massive drug bust that Customs successfully conducted.<\/p>\n
In a press conference on Monday on Capital Hill, Customs director Joe Mafnas disclosed that agents were able to intercept approximately 12 kilos (23.5 lbs) of methamphetamine or \u201cice\u201d which has an estimated value of $4.2 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis (the drug bust) makes it more reasonable for us to give the Customs more tools to prevent drugs from coming in the CNMI,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
He said the drug bust was \u201cvery critical\u201d considering the huge amount of drugs involved.<\/p>\n
As for the additional funding for the Customs, Torres said \u201cwe are looking at it\u201d particularly a big X-ray machine that the division needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will find funding for it,\u201d Torres said, noting that he will soon sit down with members of the Legislature on the funding concern.<\/p>\n
Mafnas said in his more than 20 years in law enforcement, this is \u201clargest crystal meth intercepted\u201d in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I always said, we need to choke this at the point of entry. We choked it, stopped it, so 23 lbs of crystal meth will not make it to the streets,\u201d Mafnas said.<\/p>\n
Department of Public Safety Commissioner James C. Deleon Guerrero referred to the massive drug bust as the \u201cmother of all mother lodes.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he is \u201cvery happy\u201d that DPS will \u201cnot collect\u201d this amount of drugs on the CNMI.<\/p>\n
Like Torres, the police chief also said he supports more funding for the Customs, as well as for other law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Mafnas said the division badly needs agents, particularly during this time that the entry of illegal drugs into the CNMI is increasing at an alarming rate.<\/p>\n
Mafnas, however, clarified that the Finance secretary is \u201cvery supportive\u201d of the needs of the division. Mafnas is asking for 18 more personnel to add to the 46 staff currently manning the Customs Division.
\nHe also emphasized the need for more equipment, including a large X-ray machine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Acting governor Ralph DLG Torres is supporting the call to give more funding to law…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,5491,410,6213],"class_list":["post-206430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-customs-division","tag-drugs","tag-joe-mafnas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}