NarcGroup hits release of Chinese drug lord in Pasay

The Arroyo administration’s campaign against illegal drugs suffered another setback when a prosecutor from the Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) ordered the release of a Chinese drug trafficker who was arrested late last year for possession of 15 kilos of shabu.

Narcotics Group (NarcGroup) chief Director Efren Fernandez immediately asked yesterday Justice Secretary Hernando Perez to investigate reports that the suspect Cu Un Hai alias Carlito Co, 40, was released to the tune of P7 million to P13 million.

The release of Cu came two weeks after Judge Rodrigo Lorenzo, of the Pasig City RTC Branch 266 granted bail to five Chinese chemists who were arrested last Nov. 6 inside a makeshift shabu laboratory in Capitol 8 Subdivision, Barangay Kapitolyo. The five Chinese chemists, however, were rearrested right inside Lorenzo’s sala two days later for their being undocumented. Cu was arrested along with three others by elements of the Regional Intelligence and Special Operations Office (RISOO) during a buy-bust operation along Roxas Blvd., in Pasay City last Dec. 21. Initially one kilo of shabu was recovered from the suspects.

But a subsequent search on a vehicle used by one of Cu’s companions who escaped yielded 14 kilos of shabu. The seized drugs was estimated to have a street value of P34 million.

RISOO agents filed drug trafficking charges against Cu and his three companions. But Pasay City Assistant City Prosecutor Bernabe Augustus Solis ordered the release of Cu upon a certification of a barangay official that he was not around when RISOO agents conducted the buy-bust operation.

"Fiscal Solis did not bother to ring and coordinate with us before handing down his decision," a NarcGroup official said. Solis could not be reached for comment.

Chief Inspector Eduardo Villena, NarcGroup’s legal officer reported to Fernandez that since Cu was facing a capital offense it should have been the court that decided on the truthful value of the alibi.

"It is very unfortunate that defense of alibi at the level of preliminary investigation was given so much probative value that the positive allegations of law enforcers whose narration in the affidavit of arrest enjoys the presumption of regularity," said Villena’s two-page report.

Because of Cu’s release, his three companions who remained in jail spilled the beans on him. In an informal talk with a NarcGroup operative, one of the remaining suspects claimed Cu shelled out P7 million for his release. But a NarcGroup official said Cu spent P13 million for his freedom.

Reports reaching Fernandez also showed that other jailed members of Chinese drug syndicates arrested by the NarcGroup has hired "middlemen" to negotiate their speedy release with court authorities.