Another shabu factory busted

After busting a secret drug laboratory in Silang, Cavite last Saturday, another shabu factory was raided during follow-up operations in Las Piñas City last night.

President Arroyo personally inspected the site at 277 Impex compound at Real St. in Talon, Las Piñas City along with top officials of the Philipine National Police (PNP) including Calabarzon police director Jaime Caringal, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco, PNP Anti-Drug Task Force chief Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay and Senior Superintendent Roberto Rosales, Cavite PNP provincial commander.

PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said the clandestine shabu laboratory was an abandoned industrial warehouse registered under the name of one Benito Sy.

Found inside the warehouse were 10 rotators, pressure meters, several boxes of ephedrine and ethanol, raw substances allegedly used in the manufacture of shabu.

Earlier, police operatives also found 500 grams of shabu with an estimated street value of P1 million inside the house of Chinese national Wilson Li, 29, one of the arrested suspects in Silang’s secret drug factory.

Rosales and his men secured Li’s house located at Block 21, Lot 3 Alejandro St., BF Resort, Talon 2 in Las Piñas after a tip from an informant revealed that he is keeping finished products of shabu there.

Armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Jansen Rodriguez, of the Las Piñas City Regional Trial Court, the raiders barged into Li’s house in about 1 a.m.

After a few minutes of search, Rosales said, they found the white crystalline substance in three sachets hidden at the neatly wrapped clothes of Li.

Li, along with three Chinese nationals, Leandro Go, 52; William Chen, 21 and Daniel Co, 28, all from Fujian province in China and two Filipino cohorts, Arnel Villaser and Michael Pandag, were arrested Saturday at the shabu laboratory in Silang, Cavite.

The Silang raid was the first major accomplishment of the Arroyo administration since the President ordered a renewed anti-drug drive last month.

Confiscated in the house in Barangay Cabangan, which they rented for P20,000 a month, were equipment and raw materials worth millions of pesos.

After the arrest Rosales said Li and his companions refused to cooperate in the investigation. However, an informant came forward and revealed the extent of the drug syndicates’ operations in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

"We are presently conducting surveillance operations on the places where the informant pointed to as the area where they are delivering their shabu supply," said Rosales in an interview.

"We will conduct raids as soon as we confirmed the reports we are getting." Rosales said the drug syndicate transferred to the area from Pampanga only last month. They paid the rent of four months in advance.

According to the Cavite PNP provincial director the syndicate put up a grocery store in front of the bungalow and conducted renovations on the bungalow apparently to elude authorities. He ordered a surveillance operation on the area and they monitored the gang unloading last Tuesday their shabu-making equipment.– With Non Alquitran