P40-million shabu, equipment seized in Quezon City apartment

MANILA, Philippines - Law enforcers from different agencies raided yesterday morning a clandestine laboratory at an abandoned apartment in Quezon City and seized at least P40 million worth of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) and equipment used to manufacture the illegal drug.

The raid on the two-story duplex along Calamba street in Talayan Village, Quezon City was the result of several weeks of surveillance by the police following tactical interrogation of arrested Chinese national Chiu Bing Hung, alias Victor Chiu, according to Meisic police station chief Superintendent Nelson Yabut.

The raiding team consisted of police officers from the Manila Police District, Quezon City Police District, and National Capital Region Police Office and agents from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Chiu, who has a tiger tattoo on his chest, is allegedly the chemist of the Tiger Group of a Chinese drug syndicate that allegedly maintains at least three shabu laboratories in Metro Manila.

 “Two down, one more to go,” Yabut said, referring to the location of the three shabu laboratories furnished to police by Chiu, adding that the police already know the location of the third laboratory.         

Last Saturday, police raided a kitchen-type shabu laboratory in a residential building in Binondo where P30 million worth of high-grade and unfinished shabu were seized.

Yabut said Chiu claimed the shabu laboratories in Binondo and Quezon City were two of the three laboratories in Metro Manila being maintained by alleged Chinese drug lords Cai Xihe, Tao Qing Zang and Peter Chou.

Yabut said Chou was monitored coming out of the shabu laboratory in Binondo and going to the Quezon City laboratory in early March.

After securing a search warrant issued by Branch 50 Judge Simon Peralta, PDEA and police operatives raided the Talayan shabu laboratory where five kilos of shabu, several chemicals used in the manufacture of shabu and a gas tank were recovered.

PDEA spokesman Derrick Arnold Carreon, however, said Cai Xihe, who was arrested during a raid on a shabu laboratory in Cainta, Rizal last March 20, told NCRPO operatives about the Quezon City shabu laboratory.

Cai Xihe, according to Carreon, appears to be a very important person on the triad as evidenced by a “06” tattoo on the middle finger of his right hand, which may mean that he is sixth in the hierarchy.

PDEA director general Dionisio Santiago said Cai Xihe’s arrest is expected to result in a shortage in the supply or shabu in the country.

He said the Chinese “master chemist” is a brother of Shao Chuan Tian, the alleged triad leader who operated the mega shabu laboratory in Calumpit, Bulacan that was busted in December 2006.

He also said Cai Xihe, along with six others, was convicted of drug trafficking by a Pasig City court after their arrest during a raid on a shabu laboratory in San Juan but the Court of Appeals reversed the decision in May 2007 due to a technicality.

Santiago said Cai Xihe and his brother are both wanted by no less than the China National Narcotics Control Commission, China’s premier anti-illegal drugs agency.