Drugs, weapons found in QC jail

Improvised weapons and hundreds of plastic sachets of illegal drugs were seized from inmates during a surprise inspection at the Quezon City Jail yesterday morning.

Newly installed jail warden Superintendent Emilio Culang Jr. said they seized 189 sachets of marijuana leaves and shabu and around 250 contraband items such as cell phones, blades, swords, axes and ice picks.

“This is just a flushing out of these prohibited substances… like a general cleaning of the city jail,” Culang, who assumed his post on Oct. 4, told The STAR in an interview.

Culang said they cannot sanction any particular inmate since they do not know who owns the items. “In inspections like this, we just send the inmates out from the cells, and then we confiscate whatever prohibited items we find inside,” he said.

He also said inspections would be frequent under his watch “to discourage the proliferation of prohibited items inside the jail,” which currently houses 2,860 inmates.

Culang said the prohibited items may have been smuggled in by inmates’ visitors or jail employees.  – Reinir Padua