14 shabu factory suspects charged

Thirteen Chinese nationals and a Filipino were charged yesterday with illegal manufacture of prohibited drugs before the Department of Justice (DOJ) for their role in the operation of shabu factories in Antipolo City and Pasig City.

The Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AID-SOTF) identified only eight of those charged as the rest remained at large and are now being hunted.

Charged were Chuang Wen Ming, 33; Chin Tu-Chen, 34; Yan Huai Lian, 26; Ho Kuo Hsiung, 39; An Ni; Jim Jafo alias Jimmy Lem and Gouming Li, all natives of Mainland China and Filipino Eusebio Arellano, 36.

Chuang, Chin, Yan, Ho and Arellano were arrested during the raid on a shabu factory at Kingsville Court Subdivision in Barangay Mambugan, Antipolo City while An, Jim and Gouming were behind the operations of another factory located in Greenpark Village, Barangay Manggahan, Pasig City.

AID-SOTF chief Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay expressed confidence they can get convictions because of the strong evidence his office has against the suspects.

"We have an airtight case against them, " Aglipay said in an interview. "They cannot escape justice this time."

He pointed out that the Bureau of Immigration will file separate undocumented alien charges against the Chinese nationals.

Aglipay refused to name those who are being hunted so as not to jeopardize follow-up operations.

The raids in Antipolo City and Pasig City also yielded a total of P3.2 billion worth of shabu and raw materials used for the manufacture of prohibited drugs, Aglipay said.

Meanwhile, the chief drugbuster and ranking officials of government agencies involved in the fight against illegal drugs met last night with their foreign counterparts to strengthen coordination and improve information sharing.

Invited to the meeting at the Valle Verde Clubhouse last night were Chairman Efren Fernandez of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB); Director Reynaldo Wycoco, of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI); BID Commissioner Andrea Domingo; Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo; Chairman Anselmo Avenido of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) and their counterparts from Australia, United States, New Zealand, China and Japan.

Senior Superintendent Nicasio Radovan, AID-SOTF executive director, briefed participants of accomplishments made since since launching the renewed campaign against illegal drugs last July.

"We want close cooperation among local and foreign agencies involved in the fight against illegal drugs," said Aglipay.

According to him, they will ask their foreign counterparts to provide AID-SOTF with information on locally-based transnational drug syndicates.

He said he is willing to turn over the arrested Chinese nationals to their foreign counterparts for tactical interrogation provided they forward to AID-SOTF information they have not extracted from the suspects. "It must be a give and take process, so that everybody will not be left out in the cold," Aglipay said.

The arrested suspects are detained at the PDEA detention center.