Search on for Quezon City shabu lab operators

MANILA, Philippines – Police aim to identify the operators of a shabu laboratory in Quezon City raided last Friday, an official said yesterday.

Superintendent Roque Merdegia, Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force legal officer, said initial reports showed a certain Samson Ong was behind the illegal operation.

“We wanted to resurrect the cases against these drug syndicates so once an arrest warrant is issued against its members, it would be easy for us to arrest them,” he said.

Ong is also linked to the busted Binondo drug syndicate and the shabu warehouse in Taguig City, he added.

During a raid led by Quezon City police director Chief Superintendent Benjardi Mantele, police seized from three-story building on King Kristopher street in Barangay Bagbag, Novaliches drums containing raw materials for the manufacture of shabu.

Building owner Celso Viray told police the occupants abandoned the place after a P70,000 check issued to him bounced.

However, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said the raided building was not a shabu laboratory but a warehouse.

In a text message circulating since Saturday, the PDEA asked the Quezon City police why nobody was arrested and no shabu and laboratory equipment were seized. “PDEA operations against clandestine laboratories almost always have all the elements above present,” read the text message.

The text message confirmed reports that a rift exists between the PDEA and the Philippine National Police.

“The PDEA (officials) are jealous because of the vast accomplishments of the PNP recently in the war against illegal drugs, and that they could not show one,” a STAR source said.

Mantele is a protégé of retired police deputy director general Jefferson Soriano, who is reportedly being groomed by Malacañang to replace PDEA Director General Dionisio Santiago, the source added.