PDEA, PNP-AIDG go after Chinese narcotics syndicate

The newly revived antinarcotics unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP) is out to prove their worth.

In partnership with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the PNP-Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) embarked on its first operation this week, going after a Chinese narcotics syndicate, bagging its leader’s “right-hand man,” and confiscating around P175 million worth of illegal drugs, in a series of operations starting Saturday until Wednesday.

Near noontime Wednesday, the joint team enacted a search warrant on a house on El Grande Avenue in Topman Village, Las Piñas City, suspected to be a narcotics storage facility of a syndicate led by Chinese national Mike Lee, said PNP-AIDG spokesperson Chief Insp. Roque Merdegia.

Found in a second-floor room was a luggage bag containing seven plastic transparent bags of narcotics, weighing around 13 kilograms in total.

Six packs contained ephedrine, the other “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride), with a total estimated value of P75 million, Merdegia said.

Two female house helpers were arrested, but are still being investigated for their participation in the syndicate.

The subjects of the search warrant were actually Lee and his Filipina wife Surigao native Liezle Gubantes, the house’s owner. Neither of the suspects was at home when it was raided, Merdegia said.

The law enforcers were actually led to the house based on an earlier buy-bust operation in which Lee’s “right-hand man,” Chinese national Chiu Chien Chun, alias Qui Jan Jiun, was arrested, Merdegia said.

In a statement on Wednesday, the PDEA announced that Chiu’s arrest, as well as the arrest of another suspected syndicate member, was actually part of two consecutive buy-bust operations last Saturday which led to the seizure of P100 million worth of shabu.

PDEA Director General Arturo Cacdac Jr. detailed that the first sting operation took place at the parking area of a mall in FTI, Taguig City, at 12:20 p.m. on Dec. 12. This led to the arrest of Surigao native Reyniel Diaz Macahidhid, 24, after he sold a kilogram of shabu worth P5 million to a poseur-buyer. Also seized from Macahidhid’s car were nine other kilogram-packs of suspected shabu, worth P45 million.

Three hours later, at the corner of Diokno Street and Coral Way, outside a mall in Pasay City, the team also entrapped Chiu, who yielded 10 kilograms of suspected shabu worth P50 million, two kilograms of which he was selling to the poseur-buyer.

The narcotics confiscated from Chiu were sourced from the house in Topman village, Merdegia said.

Merdegia said Lee’s syndicate has been on the “radar” of law enforcers since 2012. Merdegia said there was a “high possibility” that the narcotics come from other countries, smuggled using the north seaboard, and brought to Metro Manila for distribution to as far as Mindanao.

On Wednesday, another search warrant was served in Sta. Ana, Cagayan, also going after Lee’s syndicates. The Cagayan raid yielded ephedrine and chemicals used for making shabu, Merdegia said.

Macahidhid and Chiu have already faced inquest proceedings for complaints of sale and possession of illegal drugs at the Department of Justice.

The series of accomplishments are auspicious for the AIDG, inaugurated as a permanent police unit only on Wednesday. The AIDG finds its roots from the ad hoc Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF).

In October, the National Police Commission (Napolcom) approved a resolution turning the task force into a national operational unit, which would therefore get its own regular budget.

“Since we are dealing with the huge problem of illegal drugs, we cannot relegate the function of addressing this issue to a mere task force or a temporary unit within the police organization which could be disbanded any time,” said Interior and Local Government Secretary and Napolcom Chair Mel Senen Sarmiento, in a statement on Wednesday.

Sarmiento cited a Dangerous Drugs Board report stating that two percent of the Philippine population, or an estimated 1.7 million Filipinos, are narcotics users.

AIDSOTF head Senior Supt. Antonio Gardiola Jr. has been designated as AIDG officer in charge. The AIDSOTF’s personnel, records, equipment, facilities, funds and other resources shall be absorbed and transferred to the AIDG.