Shabu lab found in San Juan

MANILA, Philippines - Law enforcers raided an apartment, made into a shabu laboratory, along Wilson street in San Juan City yesterday morning, days after hundreds of kilos of shabu were discovered in a house in the same city last Friday.

National Bureau of Investigation agents and San Juan police officers found 44 drums, alleged to contain chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu; a pressure tanker and other equipment; tooters, pieces of aluminum foil and traces of shabu in the two-story apartment.

The lawmen carried a search warrant issued by a regional trial court in Makati City.

They confiscated red packaging bags, which had dragons and Chinese characters on the label. Agents said these bags are reportedly used to indicate that the products are of high quality.

Boxes of slip-on foam clogs and compact discs that allegedly contained pirated films were also found in the house.

The lawmen also seized a Nissan Urvan (AAA 7764), which was stripped of most of its seats except for the driver’s and front passenger seats. White powder was scattered on the van floor.

No one was in the house when the lawmen staged the raid. 

Lawyer Jonathan Galicia, NBI–Task Force Against Illegal Drugs deputy for operations, said the house may have been used as a place where illegal drugs were dried. 

“I think what they’re doing is they manufacture drugs in a particular area and they dismantle the machines so they can’t be traced,” he said.

An NBI agent on site said the chemicals found in the house could be the primary ingredients for making shabu: ephedrine, sodium carbonate, activated charcoal and benzaldehyde.

Galicia could not tell the estimated value of the chemicals as the NBI’s Forensic Chemistry Division will still have to analyze the drums’ contents.

“I think the quantity (we seized) is for distribution all over the Philippines,” he added.

The raiding team also got hold of the contract between the owner, a businesswoman, and the persons who rented the apartment. The contract was supposed to end early next year.

The businesswoman’s relatives, who live in the adjacent apartment, told lawmen a family, with a child, started occupying the apartment in 2012 and stayed there for around six months.

They said since the family left, other people started visiting the house at night. During the day, it looked like no one lived there, they said.

The businesswoman’s relatives said the apartment’s occupants might be from mainland China as they could neither speak nor understand Filipino or English.  

Last Friday, NBI agents and police also seized over 100 traveling bags, each with around 10 kilos of shabu, in a house at the corner of Mangga and Infanta streets in Barangay Little Baguio.