‘Shabu’ lab kits seized at NAIA

Two Chinese nationals were arrested by agents of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) yesterday after they were found in possession of laboratory equipment believed used in the manufacture of shabu.

Detained at the NAIA-PDEA office yesterday were Yan Sung Tao and Zhang Wei Quo, residents of Beijing. Both identified themselves as businessmen engaged in mining activities and were forming a joint venture with a local businessman.

Yan and Zhang were held by Customs and PDEA agents after eight boxes they had checked in on a China Southern Airlines flight hat landed at 12:30 a.m. yielded various laboratory equipment.

Tess Roque, BOC-NAIA deputy district collector for passenger services, said the baggage scanning team had already marked the boxes as containing suspicious items when it passed through the checked-in baggage X-ray.

Seeing the markings of the Customs scanning team, Customs examiner Tocod Derogongan conducted an inspection of the contents of the carton boxes and discovered they contained various types of laboratory beakers, tubes and burners.

PDEA-NAIA agents, seeing the contents, immediately had the two arrested. Customs examiners, headed by Collector Mimel Manahan-Talusan, had the lab items confiscated.

Chief Inspector Prospero "Rey" Bona, PDEA-NAIA officer-in-charge, said they were still conducting an examination of the seized items.

The two suspects, for their part, told reporters through an interpreter that they were not illegal drug manufacturers.

Yan said that they have contacted their local partner in the mining joint venture business they will be setting up here to confirm that the laboratory equipment seized from them were items for testing of various minerals and chemicals for their business.