Another big shabu bust, this time in Pasig

Three Chinese nationals were arrested in a police raid on another huge shabu laboratory, this time in Pasig City, last Friday, the same day authorities made their largest bust on a similar facility in nearby Antipolo City, police reported yesterday.

Twenty-four kilos of shabu and huge quantities of chemicals used for manufacturing the drug were found in the warehouse in Barangay Manggahan, said Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay, chief of the national police’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force.

Large quantities of nearly finished shabu were also confiscated.

"Just like the one in Antipolo, this Pasig-based shabu laboratory can also manufacture and process 500 kilos of shabu or P1 billion worth of illegal drugs a week," Aglipay said.

President Arroyo, who ordered an intensified crackdown on drug trafficking, briefly toured the facility.

The suspects were identified as Yu An Mi, Jimmy Lin and Li Go Ming. It was not immediately known if they are staying illegally in the country.

Police are looking for a certain Mico Tan, who was renting the warehouse. Tan was not there at the time of the raid.

Aglipay told The STAR that Australian, Taiwanese and US anti-narcotics authorities have been furnishing the Philippines information on drug traffickers and that more raids are in the offing.

"We have already identified most of them and more raids of this kind will be carried out next week," he said.

Last Friday, Aglipay’s task force seized a ton of shabu and over seven tons of chemical ingredients in a raid on a warehouse in Antipolo City, Rizal.

It was the biggest anti-drug bust ever made by police, officials said. The contraband was estimated to have a street value of P2.2 billion.

Meanwhile, a businessman suspected of links to the Antipolo drug operation denied any involvement, one of his employees said yesterday.

Police earlier said the warehouse’s business permit showed it was owned by a certain Danilo Gomez.

Gomez’s marketing officer, Becky Cuyugan, said in a telephone interview that Gomez does not own the warehouse.

She explained their furniture company rents the compound where they have their factory, just next door to the suspect warehouse.

"In fact we found it strange why that warehouse was always closed," Cuyugan said, adding that Gomez is on a business trip and will be back next week.

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

Mrs. Arroyo’s anti-drug crackdown is 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 Li Ya Lan, also known as Jackson Dy, who is allegedly the third largest shabu trafficker in the Philippines.

Dy’s shabu factory, housed in a seaside mansion in a former beach resort 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 believed used to deliver drugs. — With Rainier Alan Ronda