Record 1,070 kilos of shabu seized in raid

A police raid on a warehouse in Antipolo City yesterday yielded a ton of shabu and over seven tons of chemicals used for manufacturing the drug.

Four Chinese nationals and a Filipino were arrested in what is believed to be the largest police bust in the Arroyo administration’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs.

President Arroyo motored to the site to inspect the seized drugs and paraphernalia and congratulate Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay, chief of the national police’s Anti-Drugs Special Operations Task Force, whose men made the bust.

"This is the biggest illegal drug haul, so far. What we discovered was not a shabu laboratory but a shabu factory," Aglipay told a news conference.

The makeshift facility has been operating for the past three months and could produce at least 500 kilos of shabu a week, Aglipay said. A metric ton is equivalent to 1,000 kilos or 2,200 pounds.

Aglipay estimated the seized 1,070 kilos of shabu and 7,295 kilos of various chemicals for manufacturing shabu have a total street value of P2.2 billion.

About 470 kilos of finished shabu were found while the rest were still in liquid form. Some were stored in two large freezers and some were being air dried in containers.

Police also seized a 15-foot tall machine used for mixing chemicals and other equipment used for manufacturing the drug.

Chemical fumes were vented out through the roof by a large hose. "The smoke exited through the rooftop to prevent neighbors from smelling the pungent odor coming from the inside," a task force source said on condition of anonymity.

"Our initial investigation showed that the drug syndicate uses a glass ware business as a front for its operations," he added. Boxes of imported glassware were also seized.

Aglipay said his men, armed with a warrant issued by a Quezon City regional trial court, raided the warehouse at Kingsville Court village in Barangay Mambugan in Antipolo after a three-month surveillance.

The Chinese suspects, identified as Yan Huai Lian, Thin Tu Chen, Chuang Wen Ming and Hong Kuo Hsiune, were caught after a brief chase.

The lone Filipino suspect, Eusebio Arellano, was arrested when he arrived during the raid and refused to explain his purpose. The five suspects remained in detention for questioning.

Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo said the Chinese suspects have no travel documents. She said police were tipped off by the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

The business permit of the warehouse showed it was owned by one Danilo Gomez, who is now being hunted by the police.

Many crimes have been sparked by drugs, the most abused of which is shabu, authorities say. Much of the shabu sold in the Philippines comes from China, they say.

Mrs. Arroyo ordered a renewed crackdown on illegal drugs in June as part of a wider campaign against crime, which she said had been undermining the country’s economic recovery efforts.

In August last year, Mrs. Arroyo ordered a similar campaign as part of her campaign against crime, which she said had become a threat to the country’s economic recovery efforts.

In July, police arrested Chinese national Jackson Dy, alias of Li Ya Lan, alleged to be the third largest shabu trafficker in the Philippines.

Dy’s shabu factory, housed in a seaside mansion in Bacoor, Cavite, was then said to be the biggest busted by police. The factory could produce an estimated 30 to 40 kilos of shabu a day, authorities estimated.

Police also confiscated two jet skis, a yacht and a speedboat at the former beach resort believed used to deliver drugs. — With Christina Mendez