Restaurant crew finds shabu in restroom, foils drug deal

MANILA, Philippines - An employee of a fastfood restaurant in Caloocan City may have foiled a drug deal when he found P1 million worth of shabu stashed in the restroom Friday, a police source said yesterday.

The source, an official who requested anonymity, said investigators are reviewing the footage taken by the restaurant’s closed-circuit television cameras to find the person who went into the restroom with the bag of shabu between 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Friday. 

The employee, who asked not to be named, was about to clean the restroom when he noticed the bag in one of the cubicles. Afraid that the bag might contain a bomb, he reported his find to the security guard, who called the police.

Bomb experts from the Caloocan police checked the bag and found that it contained shabu, the police official said.

He said it was possible that the shabu was deliberately left in the cubicle and was supposed to be picked up by the buyer when the employee found the bag.

“There were instances that drug deals of this proportion are done discreetly inside establishments where there are so many people to avoid detection,” the source said.

He said there were also instances that the seller would leave the “items” at the package counter of an establishment and hand over the claim number to the buyer, but “that scheme is already passé.”

“Drug dealers have learned to innovate and improvise to fend off the authorities. Who would ever leave P1 million worth of contraband in the restroom if it was not planned?” the official said.

The source said whoever left the bag was very daring – the restaurant is near an intersection guarded by police officers and the nearest police station is only 500 meters away.