Hotel staff alert police to guest’s P9-M drug stash

BUSTED Police Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, Metro police director (left), goes over the drugs seized from Domingo Uy (second from left) at a hotel in Taguig City . —NCRPO PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — A Filipino-Canadian man’s carelessness proved to be his undoing after housekeepers at the swanky hotel where he had been staying for the past six months found a stash of illegal drugs and cash in a safety deposit box he forgot to close.

Police and drug operatives who were alerted by the security personnel of Shangri-La at the Fort in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, found almost P9 million worth of party drugs and cocaine in the room of Domingo Uy around 1 a.m. on Wednesday.

Drug hoard

The drug cache consisted of 4,038 ecstasy pills valued at P6.864 million and 350 grams of cocaine worth P1.855 million.

There were also three bottles of yellowish liquid believed to be liquid ecstasy valued at P51,500, and wads of crisp money bills amounting to P720,346.

Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, National Capital Region Police Office chief, said the 44-year-old Uy, who was arrested during the operation, had been staying at the luxury hotel for the past six months.

His room on the ninth floor costs P13,000 a night.

Party scene

“We will probe what his role is in this big syndicate of party drugs or high-end drugs,” Eleazar told reporters.

“Right now, we can only speculate that these illegal drugs were being [sold] to customers at big establishments here in Metro Manila, particularly [the] BGC area,” he said.

According to the police, Uy is a businessman whose registered address is a condominium unit in Quezon City.

Dual citizen

A holder of Philippine and Canadian passports, he has been in and out of the country 19 times since last year, based on his travel records.

“We have to investigate his past activities. With what we know right now, we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg,” Eleazar added.

Uy was detained at the Taguig police station, which was preparing to charge him with possession of illegal drugs.