P730-M shabu chemicals seized

Government forces raided a suspected illegal drugs warehouse in Marilao, Bulacan yesterday, seizing over P730 million worth of chemicals and equipment for making shabu.

Initial reports said agents of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AID-SOTF), under Deputy Director Ricardo de Leon, raided the warehouse located on Bacolod street in Barangay Patubig and arrested a Chinese national identified as Wi Fai Wang.

De Leon said eight drums of ephedrine, the primary ingredient for making shabu, and some 1,314 assorted crates of still undetermined chemicals along with 16 sacks of soda flakes were seized during the raid.

Lawmen also seized some 4,360 bottles of hydrochloric acid and 2,480 bottles of acetone from the warehouse.

"We hit paydirt. This could be one of the biggest anti-drug hauls we recorded in the history of AID-SOTF," De Leon told reporters.

He said the raid in Marilao was the 10th this year, capping the efforts of the AID-SOTF which will celebrate its second founding anniversary on Monday.

De Leon said the warehouse was traced following a tip from a walk-in informant last Sunday.

"An informant surfaced at the AID-SOTF office in Camp Crame and led us to the warehouse owned by Lui," he said.

According to De Leon, the warehouse was rented to Lui by a certain William Sy, who remained at large.

With the help of the informant, combined operatives of AID-SOTF, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Maritime Group of the Philippine National Police (PNP) conducted surveillance operations on the warehouse.

Both Sy and a still unidentified Taiwanese chemist managed to elude arrest.

"We were waiting for Sy and the chemist to surface but they failed to return to the warehouse so we decided to push through with the raid," he said.

Armed with a search warrant issued by Malolos Judge Herminia Pasamba, the lawmen swooped down on the warehouse at about 5 p.m.

Police said the chemicals and equipment were found neatly stacked inside the rented warehouse.

"We just finished conducting physical inventory of the recovered evidence and based on the PDEA records our estimate of the seized chemicals was at P730 million," De Leon told The STAR.

He said the AID-SOTF and PDEA are still trying to identify the group behind the operations of the warehouse.

"We are also interested in tracing the source of the chemicals, so we could alert its port of origin to prevent further shipment from entering the country," De Leon said.