3 caught with shabu chemicals

LIPA CITY — Police arrested three men after they were caught transporting a huge quantity of chemicals used in manufacturing shabu in an exclusive subdivision here Wednesday night.

Senior Superintendent David Quimio, Lipa City police chief, identified the three as Mark Hue, 32, of Sta. Cruz, Manila; Elvis Areglo, 25, of Padre Garcia, Batangas; and Manuel Retorada, 35, of Sampaloc, Manila.

Police made the arrest after getting a call from an official of the homeowner’s association in Barangay Maraouy about unidentified men forcibly opening the back door of an Elf truck.

A police team, led by Senior Inspector Pedro Macaraig, responded and caught the suspects loading 16 containers of a brownish liquid, three boxes of a grayish liquid, a bottle of hydrochloric acid, 18 bottles of sodium hydroxide, four acetylene tanks, and three big mixers.

Quimio said the chemicals were immediately sent to the Region 4 Crime Laboratory at Camp Vicente Lim in Laguna and they were found to be used in manufacturing shabu.

But the suspects denied being aware that the chemicals were used in making shabu, claiming that they were merely asked to get them.

Hue said a businessman, whom he could not name, hired their services to pick up the stuff.

He said the businessman would pay them P2,000 to P3,000 every time he would ask them to pick up merchandise, including VCDs and DVDs, from different places and deliver them usually to Tutuban market in Manila. — With Ed Amoroso