PDEA raids Makati shabu lab: Ex-cop killed, Chinese drug suspect arrested

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives arrested a Chinese national and killed a dismissed police officer during a raid on a suspected shabu laboratory at a condominium in Makati City yesterday morning.

Suspect Hong Chung Chang and slain former police senior inspector Nathaniel Capitanea are said to be members of a Chinese triad operating in the country, according to PDEA spokesman Derrick Arnold Carreon.

“Based on our intelligence report, they are in the higher echelon of the triad, at the source level,” he told The STAR in an interview.

Carreon said the two suspects were found in a 38th floor unit of the Joya Loft building with what PDEA agents believe is a “kitchen type” shabu laboratory.

Armed with a search warrant for Hong, Maj. Valentino Lopez led PDEA agents in the raid.

“Capitanea opened fire at our men, prompting our personnel to retaliate. Capitanea was dead on the spot,” Carreon said, noting that the former policeman was armed with a .40 caliber Glock 23.

PDEA head Director General Dionisio Santiago facilitated the arrest and charging of Capitanea in 2006 after the police official’s group allegedly illegally held a drug suspect.

Carreon said Capitanea was charged with kidnapping, saying the former police captain had been dismissed from the service allegedly because of drug-related offenses.

In another report, Santiago was quoted as saying Hong is allegedly the Philippine contact of a drug syndicate operating out of Hong Kong.

Yet another report said Capitanea went underground in 2006 after he was involved in the theft of around seven kilos of methamphetamines from a police evidence room.

Carreon said while Capitanea had long been dismissed from the police force, his identification cards still bore pictures of him wearing a police uniform. “It could be that he is still introducing himself as a policeman,” he said.

Carreon said PDEA agents found around a kilo of shabu inside the condominium unit, as well as a weighing scale and a dryer.

“The dryer had residue of shabu so it could be that the final stage of (shabu) manufacturing is being done here. The weighing scale, on the other hand, shows that they are also involved in (drug) trafficking and distribution,” he said.

The Makati shabu laboratory raid followed a Friday morning shootout between PDEA agents and Canadian national Antonio Kcomt, 37, in Quezon City.

Santiago said Kcomt was a member of the Canadian chapter of the Hell’s Angels biker gang, and believed to be “the main source of cocaine and ecstasy” in many Manila nightclubs.

“The suspect has been in the country for at least two years and is certified to be unemployed,” Santiago said, adding that Kcomt was also wanted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for fraud and theft in Canada.

The government has been stepping up the war on drug gangs since the start of the year, with official statistics pointing to the Philippines as a major shipment point for illegal drugs into Asia.

There are about 6.7 million drug users in the country, mostly taking amphetamines, marijuana and party drugs like ecstasy, statistics show.

Drug gangs have also penetrated Philippine politics from the municipal to the national level, with many politicians believed to receive campaign funds from them, officials have said.