33 more kilos of shabu worth P180 M found in Subic waters

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – Members of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Harbor Patrol Group recovered another 33 kilos of high-grade shabu during a routine inspection of the Bravo dock pier yesterday morning.

The substance was estimated at P180 million and was believed to be part of the P4.6-billion shabu earlier confiscated in a foiled attempt to smuggle the illegal drugs into the Subic Bay Freeport.

SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza said the SBMA Harbor Patrol, still on alert after the seizure of 714.6 kilos of shabu here last week, found the illegal drugs in three plastic-wrapped boxes anchored underwater to prevent them from floating.

“This is apparently part of the same shipment that we seized last week,” Arreza told The STAR, pointing out that the drugs had the same packaging as those confiscated from suspected drug runner Anton Ang.

“Follow-up operations by both the SBMA and the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) will continue until we clear even the unlikely areas where the drugs could have been concealed,” he said, as he turned over the contraband to the PASG office in the Freeport.

Arreza said the divers made the discovery when they scoured the waters where the Taiwanese vessel F/B Shun Fa Xing docked on May 25.

This was the vessel from which Ang offloaded eight sealed boxes of “sensitive computer parts” that later on turned out to be shabu, he added.

Last week, the SBMA-PASG team also found two other bags of shabu floating in the same area, after the Taiwanese fishing boat hurriedly left port. Several bags of shabu were also recovered by operatives inside a van located near a warehouse at the Subic Bay Industrial Park, which was rented by Ang and was co-owned by an export-import firm registered at the Subic Bay Freeport.

Ang is co-owner of Hualong International Inc., a trading firm subleasing a property at the Industrial Park inside the Freeport zone.      

Although follow-up operations at Ang’s house in Olongapo City did not yield any contraband, Arreza enjoined the SBMA harbor patrol and law enforcers to maintain their vigilance and directed them to continue their search.

If Ang has successfully smuggled the contraband, it could have been mixed with some chemicals to triple the amount and sold to local markets in the amount of more than P12 billion.  – With Bebot Sison Jr.