Odor, smoke betray Paco ketamine lab

Foul odor and smoke emanating from an apartment unit in Paco, Manila led to the discovery yesterday of a mini-drug laboratory, where 16.14 kilos of the party drug ketamine and essential chemicals worth P75 million were confiscated.

Police said the clandestine laboratory was located at the second floor of Unit 1 of the apartment building at the corner of Merced and Icasiano streets in Paco. It was the fourth ketamine laboratory busted this year, said Deputy Director General Ricardo de Leon, head of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF).

"Members of the drug syndicate behind the operation of the drug laboratory appeared to have been re-packing the drugs for shipping to other countries, where ketamine is in great demand," De Leon said.

The AIDSOTF chief said the apartment unit was being rented for less than P5,000 monthly by a certain Diana Manansala. She moved in last February and is frequently out of the country.

At around 5 a.m., residents were roused from their sleep by a foul odor coming from Unit 1.

A tenant immediately informed apartment caretaker Dondee Zulueta about a possible fire after noticing thick smoke coming out of the second floor window.

As neighbors alerted the Manila Fire Department, Zulueta entered Unit 1 using a duplicate key.

Inside one of the rooms on the second floor, he saw an aluminum pot on a stove where a substance was being cooked.

Responding elements of the Western Police District (WPD) sealed off the area after Zulueta had reported the presence of white powder and chemicals in the room.

De Leon and WPD director Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong rushed to Paco to supervise inventory of the seized ketamine, raw materials and laboratory equipment.

The AIDSOTF chief said the ketamine powder was found in four trays and a plastic bag. They also seized seven water containers, a gas stove, two pots, a digital weighing scale, a plastic bag sealer and several boxes of empty juice packs.

Neighbors told Superintendent Arnold Aguilar, of the AIDSOTF Special Operations Group (SOG), that Manansala is often visited by a Chinese-looking man named Mike and two others.

Some witnesses claimed they saw Manansala’s sister rushing out of the apartment carrying a large bag just after the "fire."

Anti-drug operatives of the WPD are now hunting down Manansala and her cohorts.

"I dispatched a team of operatives to track down the people behind the operation of this laboratory in line with the initiative of Mayor Lito Atienza to get all those responsible for spreading illegal drugs in the city," Bulaong said.

Senior Superintendent Rogelio Damazo, AIDSOTF intellgence chief, said this year alone, they neutralized ketamine laboratories located in Malate, Manila, and in Barangays Holy Spirit and Sta. Teresita in Quezon City, resulting in the seizure of millions of pesos worth of finished products, raw materials and equipment.

"We are comparing seized evidence in Paco with other busted laboratories to determine if they are being operated by the same syndicate," Damazo said.