Drug suspects posed as utensils traders
THIS warehouse in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga province, is where antinarcotics agents found P4 billion worth of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride). E.I. REYMOND T. OREJAS/INQUIRER CENTRAL LUZON
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Chinese illegal drug suspects arrested here last week had registered their business as a dealer of kitchenware and utensils in this Pampanga capital before the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) seized from them around P4 billion worth of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) and chemicals on Friday, documents showed.
Jayson Lee, one of the suspects, registered CCL01 Trading with the Department of Trade and Industry on Feb. 24. Lee listed his house address as Block 3, Lot 19 at Land Homes Phase 1 in Barangay (village) Lawa, Meycauayan City, in nearby Bulacan province.
The company rented a warehouse, painted with the marking “BigBlue,” at Greenville Subdivision beside Jose Abad Santos Avenue, a busy national road. The village is just a kilometer away from the San Fernando exit of the North Luzon Expressway and 2 km from two big shopping malls.
“We found nothing suspicious. All we saw were kitchen utensils and a delivery van,” Joseph Garcia, head of the business license and permit division of the city government, said, referring to five inspections done in the last six months to check compliance with zoning, fire, building, health and environment regulations.
“Really, I was shocked,” said Loreto Tumang, chief of Barangay San Jose, where the warehouse is located.
Tumang said that while residents in his village had reported suspected drug users and pushers, and tipped off areas where shabu is sold or pot sessions are held, no information cropped out about the warehouse.
A man who lives in a house next to the building said no stench or odor from chemicals came from the warehouse.
Tumang said residents told him that before the raid, they used to see a Chinese man from the warehouse walking his dog during mornings. It is not known if this man was Lee, 28, Willy Yap, 26, or Neil Tan, 26.
Their companion, a Chinese woman identified as Ying Huang, rented a house in Richtown Subdivision, an upscale village in the city.
The PDEA’s Special Enforcement Service led by Director Ismael Fajardo Jr. took the four suspects to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday for inquest proceedings. The search warrant was issued by a judge in Quezon City.
They were charged with violating Republic Act No. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, PDEA spokesperson Derrick Carreon said in a phone interview.
Police here said owners of the places the Chinese suspects had rented had no inkling that their properties were being used for illegal activities.
It used to be that the favorite locations for manufacturing shabu were pig farms, hollow blocks factories or remote farms, police said.
San Fernando Mayor Edwin Santiago said the suspects appeared to have been bolder and more cunning to mix into communities and escape detection.
“This indicates that local governments need to work more closely with law enforcement agencies,” he said.
The raids took place two weeks after the PDEA held a summit in the city and six months after police dismissed the head and 11 members of the Pampanga Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Operations Task Group for an irregular operation on a Chinese suspect in nearby Mexico town.
Tumang said it was about time that people who rent houses, offices, commercial buildings, warehouses and other structures get permits from village councils for closer monitoring.
No such proposal has been raised at the city council.
