4 Chinese arrested in Batangas shabu laboratory raid

MANILA, Philippines — Four Chinese men and four Filipinos were arrested following a raid on a shabu laboratory in a warehouse in Barangay Sto. Niño, Ibaan, Batangas yesterday.

Hong Dy, the alleged supervisor and caretaker of the warehouse; chemists Tian Baoquan and Gui Zixing, electrician Eduardo Lorenzo, driver Rosalio Cesar, Amancio Gallarde and Nestor Baguio are under the custody of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) intelligence and investigation service. 

The alleged handler of the Chinese chemists, Xie Jiansheng, was arrested in a follow-up operation in Barangay Francisco, Tagaytay, Cavite. He alleged yielded 500 grams of shabu with an estimated street value of P2.5 million.

Chemicals used to manufacture shabu  as well as safrole, an ingredient of party drug Ecstasy, were among those recovered from the laboratory.

PDEA chief Aaron Aquino said the shabu laboratory could produce up to 25 kilos of shabu worth around P125 million per day.

PDEA spokesman Derrick Carreon said the raid followed almost seven months of surveillance after they received information from the Office of the National Narcotics Control Commission of the Ministry of Public Security of China.

The Chinese men are alleged members of the Drango Wu drug ring with links to the Golden Triangle operating at the border of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. They reportedly flew in and out of the country from September to October last year.

Drug suspect slain

In Bulacan, an alias Ato, a resident of Barangay Guinhawa in Malolos, allegedly fired at anti-drug operatives who posed as buyers of shabu in Barangay Igulot, Bocaue at around 3:30 a.m. yesterday.

Three sachets of shabu, a .38-caliber revolver, bullets and P500 in marked money were recovered from the fatality, police said.

Seventeen other drug suspects were arrested in stings in San Jose del Monte, Angat, Bulakan, Bustos, Bocaue, Pandi, Marilao, San Ildefonso, Guiguinto, and Sta. Maria also in Bulacan; three in Tarlac City, and one each in San Jose, Jaen and Talavera in Nueva Ecija and Solana, Cagayan in the past two days.

Two were nabbed in Naga, Camarines Sur and one in Bulan, Sorsogon.

Among those arrested in Nueva Ecija was Bernard Afable, a former personnel of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.  

P5-M marijuana, P3.7-M shabu seized

In Kalinga, PDEA agents destroyed 44,000 fully grown marijuana plants worth around P5 million in Barangays Buscalan and Bugnay in Tinglayan, Kalinga.

Around 250 grams  of shabu valued at P3.7 million were recovered from Jeffrey Vigel, 35, who was arrested in Bacolod City. – With Ed Amoroso, Romina Cabrera, Ric Sapnu, Raymund Catindig, Celso Amo, Gilbert Bayoran