Street shabu now in scarce supply

The supply of shabu in Metro Manila has reached an all-time low for the holidays.

Metro Manila police chief Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco attributed the scarcity of the supply in the metropolis to the recent neutralization of shabu laboratories in Paranaque City, Valenzuela City and Navotas.

"We expected the shabu supply to considerably go down after we successfully close down the operations of shabu laboratories in Metro Manila," said Velasco noting that the price of the illegal drugs has consequently skyrocketed to an all-time high of P2,500 per gram.

Velasco said he has directed the five police district directors to intensify their anti-drug operations, including the monitoring of warehouses believed being used by drug syndicates in their operations.

He also pointed out that shabu laboratory operations in Valenzuela City and Navotas were related, while a different drug syndicate had operated the raided lab in Parañaque City.

A police official agreed with Velasco that the shabu supply in Metro Manila is now very scarce, saying Chinese drug syndicates have been monitored leaving the country after three shabu laboratories were raided and shut down.

He said drugs being distributed in the streets at high prices now are those stored by the syndicates prior to the neutralization of the shabu laboratories. "The drug syndicates are unloading their shabu supplies before adopting a wait-and-see attitude because of the relentless anti-drug operations of the police," he said.

The police official also told The Star that in most cases, the shabu being sold in the streets now are either adulterated or of low quality.

"Malimit pa nga na bumabalik ang mga inuutusang bumili ng shabu dahil nga walang makuha," said the police official, who asked not to be identified.

The shabu lab in Paranaque City was raided last Nov. 1, while those in Valenzuela City and Navotas were neutralized this month. Police recovered hundreds of kilos of high-grade shabu and some P2 billion worth of shabu-making materials.

Meanwhile, police have launched a Metro-wide manhunt against Chinese national Hung Cha Ming, who allegedly owns a cargo of equipment used for the manufacture of shabu which was recovered in Navotas.

The Metro Manila police chief expressed confidence that his men would get Hung, whose last address was listed in Marulas, Valenzuela.

"We are now trying to find out whether other shabu-making materials were delivered to Hung’s address in Valenzuela prior to the seizure of the same products in Navotas," Velasco said.

The seizure, Velasco said, has dealt "a heavy blow to the market of illegal drugs in Metro Manila."

"This should serve as a warning to drug traffickers that the men of the NCRPO are determined to wage President Arroyo’s war against these enemies of the state and are taking to heart the mandate of the PNP chief for a relentless campaign against the traffic of illegal drugs," he stressed.

In his report to Velasco, Superintendent Billy Beltran, Navotas police chief, said elements of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) of the local police were on a routine patrol at around 9:30 a.m. last Dec. 11 when they chanced upon several persons unloading cartons and crates from a container van in front a warehouse at Kalakal street., San Rafael Village.

A warehouse employee, a certain Michael Chua, allowed the SWAT team to conduct an ocular inspection on the shipment. A barangay chairman was around when the lawmen opened the boxes which contained glass flasks and a rotary evaporator, similar to those found at a San Juan shabu lab, which was neutralized on January this year.

The seized items were scheduled for delivery to Hung in Valenzuela the next day, Beltran said.

He and Superintendent Dionardo Carlos of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) set an entrapment operation against Hung at 1:10 p.m. the next day but the Chinese national failed to appear at the rendezvous area in Barangay Marulas.