Hunt on for Chinese drug keeper

Chief drugbuster Deputy Director General Ricardo de Leon ordered yesterday a manhunt for a Chinese national believed to be behind the operation of a Caloocan City warehouse, which yielded 1,157 boxes of assorted shabu precursors worth P5 million.

De Leon said Tang Pao Tan, 24, a native of Xiamen, China, disappeared after Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Task Force (AIDSOTF) agents, local police and barangay officials raided a warehouse he was renting at the corner of Tirad Pass and Evangelista streets in Barangay Bagong Barrio, Caloocan last Thursday.

De Leon, who heads AIDSOTF, said he is also coordinating with the Bureau of Immigration to prevent Tang from leaving the country.

He said Tang’s Alien Certificate of Registration showed that he arrived in the country as a tourist last Oct. 29, 2004.

"We are trying to determine how Tang managed to put up an illegal business as well as find out who helped him acquire needed documents," said De Leon, adding the suspect "was not acting alone."

He said Tang’s listed address at 558 8th Avenue in Caloocan turned out to be fictitious.

De Leon said they are awaiting for the results of the crime laboratory examination on the seized evidence prior to the filing of appropriate charges against Tang, who rented the warehouse from owner Hua Ping, last Aug. 3.

The rent was P43,000 a month.

He said they are also determining the extent of the liability of Hua and his property administrator, Eufemia Young.

"We will file charges against Hua and Young, but that would depend on the result of the crime laboratory examination on the seized items," De Leon said.

The AIDSOTF submitted to the crime lab boxes of chemicals, including thionyl chloride, pyridine, ethyl alcohol, acetone and chloroform, all materials used in the manufacture of shabu.

The boxes were discovered by barangay chairman Ryan Raul Zamuco while inspecting warehouses and new businesses without permits to operate.

Zamuco immediately reported his find to AIDSOTF and the local police.