Drug busters targeting Dy’s contacts

The government’s drug busters are going after the local and foreign contacts of suspected transnational drug syndicate leader Jackson Dy.

Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay, head of the police Anti-Drug Special Operations Task Force (AID-SOTF) said they have the names of a number of local and foreign contacts, but he refused to reveal them as not to jeopardize ongoing operations.

"We are now tracing the whereabouts of all of his contacts," said Aglipay referring to Dy, whose real name is Li Lan Yan, 46. "We are hoping to haul them to jail in due time."

Aglipay stressed they are focusing on one foreigner whose name was frequently mentioned during tactical interrogation on Dy and Yang Ching Yi, 51, a Taiwanese who acted as cook and chemist of the drug syndicate.

Dy pointed to the foreigner as the owner of the raided condominium unit at Marina Bay Homes in Parañaque City. The raiders, headed by Superintendent Nelson Yabut, an AID-SOTF team leader, recovered 361 kilos of shabu and 41 sacks of ephedrine, which Dy claimed to be owned by the foreigner.

"Pinatira lang niya ako dito at kanya yong shabu," Dy, who speaks Tagalog, said.

For his part, Yang said it was the same foreigner who hired him to cook food for workers at the raided shabu laboratory in Barangay Capipisa, Tanza, Cavite.

Prior to the raid last month, Yang said the foreigner was mauled by angry neighbors in Cavite after he was caught peeping at women during a drinking spree.

But the foreigner and his four companions mysteriously disappeared a few days before the raid, which yielded shabu-making equipment and raw materials used for the manufacture of the illegal drug.

Dy was arrested at a hotel in Pasay City while Yang was nabbed at the shabu laboratory in Cavite. They apparently did not know each other.

Both Dy and Yang are cooperating fully with AID-SOTF regarding their local and foreign contacts, Aglipay said.

He added that efforts to seize the assets and properties of Dy and other arrested members of the drug syndicate are now underway.

Aglipay said his men are meeting regularly with their counterparts from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to speed up the confiscation of illegally acquired assets and properties.

AID-SOTF said it has documents to prove that Dy and his wife, Wang Li Na owned the four townhouses in Pasay City which they bought for P7.5 million each; a condo in Parañaque City worth P8 million; a speedboat; two yachts; a fishing vessel, two jet skis, a luxury van, a Jaguar which was purchased for P5 million and a three-storey house and a one-hectare lot in Tanza, Cavite worth hundreds of millions of pesos.

"These are the initial list of assets and properties we are focusing on," said Aglipay, adding they will expand their probe on other suspected syndicate members in due time. – Non Alquitran