P10-M shabu seized in QC drug bust

MANILA, Philippines - Police arrested yesterday a Chinese man who yielded at least two kilos of shabu with a street value of P10 million in a drug bust at a bar in Quezon City before dawn yesterday.

Clarence Chen Go, alias Tony Go, allegedly sold a kilo of methamphetamine hydrochloride worth P5 million to an undercover anti-narcotics agent at the parking space of the bar at the corner of Tomas Morato and Timog Avenues.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) director general Jose Gutierrez Jr. said Go was carrying two other packages, which contained 500 grams of shabu each.

“The package that he (Go) handed to our poseur-buyer was even covered with Christmas wrap,” PDEA public information office head Evangeline Almenario said.

Almenario said the sting operation was set up after Go sold a kilo of shabu to another undercover policeman early last month. But he said Go did not face the buyer then and only asked him to deposit the payment to a certain bank account and get the contraband at a particular spot.

P1.28-B illegal drugs seized

The Philippine National Police (PNP) ordered police units to sustain the anti-drug campaign even as it reported that illegal drugs worth P1.28 billion were seized during a series of anti-drug operations in the first month of the year.

“We must continue to hit hard on organized crime groups behind the manufacture, cultivation and trafficking of illegal drugs in support of the national anti-drug campaign,” PNP chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome said.

“We’re on a roll in our operational thrust against illegal drug syndicates, and this is a good way to start another year-long sustained battle against drugs,” the PNP chief said.

Bartolome also directed all police units to extend assistance to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and other law enforcement agencies involved in anti-drug operations.

He said the PNP extended support to PAOCC and PDEA to dismantle drug laboratories in Alabang, Muntinlupa and Quezon City. He said the PNP also assisted the Bureau of Customs in the seizure of a shipment of shabu-making chemicals and equipment worth P37 million.

Records show that the PNP-AIDSOTF raided a warehouse in Caloocan City that yielded 280 kilograms of semi-processed shabu with an estimated value of P1 billion in the local drug market.

Police also arrested three Chinese drug dealers and confiscated 20 kilos of high-grade shabu worth P100 million in San Juan City. At least 22,000 fully grown marijuana plants worth P4.4 million were destroyed in Kapangan, Benguet.

Government agents also intercepted 164 dried marijuana bricks worth P6.9 million from three suspects in Dau, Mabalacat, Pampanga last Jan. 29. – Reinir Padua, Cecille Suerte Felipe