The seized shabu, totaling 334 kilos worth about P668 million, was the biggest drug haul in a little over a month.
Senior Superintendent Fred—die Buenconsejo, Region 1 police-community relations chief, cited intelligence reports that the drug syndicate had smug—gled about 1,000 kilos of shabu.
The rest of the shipment could either have been dumped or are still kept in other vessels.
Three suspects, Chinese nationals Cai Hong Za alias Edwin Hong, Henry Tan alias Eddie Tan and William Chua alias William Cheng, were arrested at the boundary of San Felipe and San Narciso towns in Zambales.
Coastal waters off Zambales and Pangasinan are favorite dumping grounds of foreign drug syndicates.
Senior Superintendent Ro—dolfo Mendoza, Pangasinan police director, believe the three suspects had links with five Chinese nationals who were arrested in a coastal village in Dasol town last Nov. 10.
The suspects, he said, were seen in Dasol when the aliens were nabbed. They claimed to be tourists, but handed money to the aliens supposedly out of pity.
Mendoza blamed police laxity in the suspects having gone scot-free. But he said: "Had we arrested them there would have been no shabu landing in Zambales. Maybe there was really divine intervention." — Myds Supnad and Eva de Leon