P1-B shabu seized in Parañaque

MANILA, Philippines - Police officers seized 200 kilos of shabu with a street value of P1 billion from four men in Parañaque City yesterday afternoon.

One of the men, identified as Robert Tan, told members of the Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF) that they did not know what the boxes contained. They were just told to get the boxes from a hotel in the city and deliver them to Cavite and they would be paid P70,000 for the delivery, ABS-CBN reported.

Tan, 33, was arrested along with Oliver Tan, 26; Mark Jun San Miguel, 29; and Felino Diamse, 49.

AIDSOTF chief Senior Superintendent Bartolome Tobias said the 200 kilos of shabu had been put in white cloth sacks in six wooden crates.

AIDSOTF spokesman Chief Inspector Roque Merdegia said they received a tip about a shipment of shabu and the plate number of the vehicle that would carry the shipment.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director general Arturo Cacdac told The STAR they believe the arrested suspects are members of a Chinese drug gang. He said the shabu could have come from China or Hong Kong, noting that it was impossible for the drugs to have come from Mexico. The operations of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel were only recently discovered in the Philippines.

Cacdac said the suspects arrested in yesterday’s operation were of Chinese descent. – With Reinir Padua