Cavite judge orders assets of drug lord frozen

A Cavite regional trial court (RTC) judge has issued a freeze order on the bank account and four real estate properties of arrested Chinese drug lord Jackson Dy, whose real name is Li Lan Yan.

Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay, head of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AID-SOTF), hailed the decision of Judge Aurelio Icasiano Jr., of Cavite RTC Branch 32.

"Illegal drugs is a crime of greed and the best way to counter it is to deprive criminals the fruits of their illegal activities," said Aglipay.

In his three-page order dated April 2, Icasiano barred Dy, who also uses the aliases Jackson Lozano, Allan Lee and Allan Sy, or his agents, employees and other individuals acting on his behalf, from disposing or transferring the bank account at the Allied Bank in Jose Abad Santos in Tondo, Manila and the four parcels of land in Cavite.

"This court is impressed that the properties of the respondent are related to the unlawful activity of violation of RA 9165 or the amended Comprehensive Anti-Drugs Law," said Icasiano.

The bank account and the four parcels of land were traced by Aglipay’s men days after Dy was arrested at a hotel in Parañaque City last July 24.

In a span of two weeks, AID-SOTF operatives headed by intelligence chief Senior Superintendent Federico Laciste Jr. dismantled Dy’s shabu laboratory in Tanza, Cavite and raided his homes at the Marina Bay Homes in Parañaque and the Lancaster Suites in Pasay City.

Aside from neutralizing shabu laboratories and warehouses, AID-SOTF, through the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), has initiated forfeiture proceedings on Dy’s properties used in the commission of the crime as well as the fruits arising from said illegal activities.

In a hearing last April 2, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) presented Richard David Funk, head of the crime investigation staff of AMLC and Benito Chua, branch manager of Allied Bank.

Funk testified that the piece of land, registered in the name of Lozano, located at 617 Kanluran St. in Barangay Capipisa in Tanza town was converted by the suspect into a shabu laboratory.

For his part, Chua claimed that Dy or Lozano maintained a bank account in his bank.

The 2,572-sq.m. lot in Barangay Capipisa was converted by the government last Monday into a drug rehabilitation center.

During the inauguration of the facility, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo revealed plans to also convert into drug rehabilitation and treatment centers 21 other dismantled shabu laboratories in the country.

Aglipay warned owner and lessors of warehouses or establishments which will be discovered to have been transformed into shabu laboratories that the government will correspondingly charge them along with the arrested suspects and their properties forfeited.

"It is hard to believe that these lessors, after months and years subjecting their property under lease, then claim that they have no knowledge of illegal activities happening therein," said Aglipay.