Days after three medium-sized drug laboratories were discovered to be operating in the exclusive Ayala Alabang Village in Muntinlupa City, authorities raided another one in Caloocan City on Thursday, which yielded 280 kilos of semi-processed shabu, or methamphetamine hydrochloride.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome placed the value of the seized drugs at around P1 billion.
“We believe we have broken the backbone of a major transnational drug syndicate behind the manufacture and trafficking of shabu and amphetamine products in the Philippines and other countries,” he said in a statement.
Bartolome rushed to the site to personally assess the operation conducted by agents of the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Northern Police District (NPD) and Caloocan police.
According to the PNP chief, there will be no letup in the campaign to round up all those involved in the drug trade, including the owners of the houses or establishments that are being used as shabu laboratories.
No arrests were made in Thursday’s operation as the warehouse at 22 Diamond St. in the Caloocan Industrial Park at Barangay (village) Kaybiga had apparently been abandoned for sometime.
The semi-processed drugs were individually packed into one-kilogram tea bags which had been placed into 14 boxes with Chinese markings. Each box contained around 20 kilos.
Also seized from the warehouse were drug ingredients and equipment, including 180 2.5-liter bottles of high-grade ethanol made in Spain, hydrochloric acid from Germany and Thailand, caustic soda, red phosphorous, activated carbon, metallic blender, metallic spin dryer, Buchner funnel, suction pumps and filter papers.
At press time, another police team was reported to be conducting a follow-up operation on Samat Street in Quezon City.
Senior Superintendent Wilson Amper, NPD deputy director for operations, said that residents living near the warehouse in Caloocan City had earlier complained of a foul smell coming from the building, prompting them to place it under surveillance.