PDEA files more charges vs Chinese for operating shabu lab

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency filed additional charges of violation of the anti-drugs law against a Chinese national who rents a unit at a condominium building in Binondo, Manila where a suspected shabu laboratory was discovered in a raid by authorities on Monday.

Aside from the earlier charges of illegal sale and possession of dangerous drugs filed by the Manila Police District, Samson Tan, 30, was also charged by PDEA with manufacture of dangerous drugs and or controlled precursors and essential chemicals. Tan’s cohorts identified as Wilson Chua, Carmencita Samonte and Jobani Ortañez, who are still at large, were also charged with the same offense by PDEA.

Operatives of PDEA and the Manila Police District (MPD)’s District Anti-Illegal Drugs-Special Operations Group (DAID-SOG) and the Meisic police station raided Tan’s unit located at the 22nd floor of the 22-story Fortune Palace building at the corner of Juan Luna and Fereira streets in Binondo. Authorities found and seized six plastic sachets containing suspected shabu with approximate total weight of 24 grams, an improvised strainer containing more or less 12 grams of suspected shabu, assorted plastic containers with at least 30 liters of brownish liquid chemical which authorities believed to be in the last stage of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu production, assorted paraphernalia used in the manufacture of shabu, a washing machine used as dryer, and a refrigerator with several containers of chemical substance.

PDEA director for Metro Manila Senior Superintendent Benjamin Magalong said the pieces of evidence were processed and taken by PDEA laboratory service for analysis and custody. Results of analyses will be known in two days, Magalong said.

Tan, a suspected illegal alien, was arrested in a buy-bust operation last Friday night by the anti-drug operatives of the Meisic police station. Two plastic sachets of high-grade shabu was seized from Tan, who could neither speak nor write English or Filipino, according to Meisic police station chief Superintendent Nelson Yabut. Yabut suspected that Tan is a member of an international drug ring operating in Metro Manila due to an elaborate tattoo of a dragon that almost covers his back and even coils to his right arm, saying “only the top men of the drug triad sport this kind of tattoo.”

Tan, who started to occupy the unit since January, said he is from Fujian, China and entered the Philippines as a trader. He said he and his wife occupies a stall inside the 168 Mall in Divisoria.