3 San Juan drug suspects 'wanted fast cash'

MANILA, Philippines - Low on cash after celebrating the Chinese New Year, three suspected drug dealers were looking for fast money when they were caught by police with P100 million worth of shabu in San Juan Sunday, police said yesterday.

The slip-up was a major breakthrough for investigators after months of frustrated negotiations with Lin Hong Seng, Lin Hong Beng, and Hong Heng Hung, who tried to mislead police officers by claiming they were from Taiwan and Hong Kong. They turned out to be from mainland China, according to Chief Inspector Roque Merdegia, legal officer of the Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operation Task Force (AIDSOTF).

Despite an undercover agent’s repeated requests to buy shabu, the men refused to make the transaction in person. The group insisted that the agent pay using a bank transfer – avoiding the chance of getting caught red-handed in a police sting operation.

But on Saturday night, after a spending spree over Chinese New Year, the three men were looking to refill their coffers. They called the agent to see if he was interested in purchasing two kilos of locally made shabu for P4.8 million.

The next day, after a car pursuit on Wilson street in San Juan City that lasted less than a minute, police arrested the three men, who yielded a total of 20 kilos of shabu.

While anti-drug officials hailed the operation as a victory in the war on shabu, Merdegia said it is also indicative of the rising sophistication of drug syndicates.

Merdegia said whether they are selling small or large amounts of prohibited drugs, dealers now want all payments through bank transfers.

“That’s one of the emerging trends in drug trafficking,” Merdegia said. “In that kind of transaction we can’t apprehend anyone.”

Even if there was a chance of arrest, it created huge risks for the cash-strapped task force. Merdegia said in last Sunday’s drug bust, it would have meant transferring P4.8 million that might never be retrieved.

The AIDSOTF and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) are investigating ways to counter the use of bank transfers but have so far had little luck. For legal reasons, it is difficult to reverse bank payments.

His task force and the PDEA are exploring legislative proposals but there is unlikely to be a quick fix on the horizon, Merdegia said.