Chemicals seized in Mindoro could produce P3.5-B high-grade shabu

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna - Authorities raided yesterday a clandestine laboratory in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro that yielded chemicals that could produce P3.5 billion worth of high-grade shabu, police said.

The raid was conducted by joint elements of the Oriental Mindoro Police Office, 409th Provincial Police Mobile Group and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

The PDEA said the recovered chemical ingredients could produce 1,000 kilos of shabu per week.

Chief Superintendent Napoleon Cachuela, Region 4-B police director, said his men swooped down on a house built in the middle of a six-hectare inland fishery farm at Barangay Navotas around 5:30 a.m.

No one was arrested in the raid, Cachuela said.

With a search warrant issued by Judge Tomas Leynes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 40 of Calapan City Oriental Mindoro, authorities were able to recover seven drums of liquid ephedrine, a chemical component used in making shabu; several bottles of assorted chemicals, a hydrogenator, eight units of boilers and 20 units of water pumps.

Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz, Oriental Mindoro police chief, in an interview with The STAR, said the seized chemicals could produce up to 350 kilos of ephedrine crystals or 700 kilos of shabu, which could fetch up to P3.5 billion when sold in the street.

Cruz said three Chinese nationals rented the shabu laboratory, a 150-square meter bungalow, for P60,000 a month. Another structure located some 100 meters away from the laboratory was also leased for P11,000 a month.

A former beauty queen-turned-actress allegedly owns the property but the police named a certain Rolando Gitano as caretaker.

Cruz said the raid was conducted after two months of surveillance from information provided by the intelligence community.

“We conducted a week-long surveillance operation after we were tipped that three Chinese nationals were supervising the construction of a small house in the area. After the May election,  expansion occurred and equipments started pouring in,” Cruz said.

He however refused to divulge the names of the Chinese nationals.

“ We’ll just announce the names of the suspects when we already arrested them,” Cruz added.

Illegal shabu laboratories are now being transferred outside Metro Manila after the PDEA stepped up their campaign against shabu laboratories, and the favorite destination seems to be Region 4.

Last July 6, the National Bureau of Investigations and PDEA in the Calabarzon area were able to seize P5-billion worth of shabu chemicals in Biñan, followed by a raid in San Pedro, Laguna that resulted in the arrest of a Chinese national identified as Tony Tan Go. – With Ed Amoroso