3 nabbed in shabu lab raid in Davao Sur

A combined team of the police and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) raided a shabu laboratory in a warehouse owned by a Chinese-Filipino businessman in Digos City, Davao del Sur, reports said.

The government agents arrested three suspects identified as Victor Lu, Vinzon Lu and Vernold Lu and seized a kilo of finished shabu, bottles of different chemicals believed to be shabu precursors, weighing scales and equipment used in making the illegal drug.

A shotgun and a homemade caliber .38 revolver were also confiscated from the suspects.

Meanwhile, about P3 billion to P6 billion worth of shabu could easily be produced by the two clandestine shabu laboratories busted in Tarlac City recently, police said.

Chief Superintendent Ismael Rafanan, Central Luzon police director, said the shabu labs raided last Friday and Monday yielded chemicals enough to produce 1.5 tons to three tons of shabu. 

In a report to Rafanan, Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome, Tarlac police director, said the second shabu lab was raided in Sitio Molave near the boundary of Barangays San Isidro and Tibag in Tarlac City on Monday.

Police arrested a Chinese national, Jenny Chua, 26, and seized chemicals and apparatus used in manufacturing shabu, he said.

The first shabu lab was busted in Villa Alicia, Barangay Care in Tarlac City. Two Chinese nationals, Jaime Chua, 30, and Chou Fan Yu, 50, were collared during the raid.

With the dismantling of the two shabu labs, Bartolome said, "(We) have prevented the possible production of billions of pesos worth of shabu in the province, considering the big quantity of chemicals seized." 

Rafanan said a big Chinese drug syndicate was behind the two shabu labs.

The raiding team was composed of operatives of the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operation Task Force, Provincial Intelligence and Investigation Branch, 313th Mobile Group, Regional Intelligence Operations-3, Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division, Provincial Crime Laboratory, and PDEA.

The raiding team was armed with search warrants issued by Judge Bitty Viliran of Regional Trial Court Branch 65 and Judge Arsenio Adriano of RTC Branch 63. — With Ric Sapnu