Another ‘shabu kitchen’ in Malabon

Police on Monday seized an estimated P240 million worth of “shabu” at an apartment reportedly rented by a Chinese citizen in Malabon City.

It was the second time this month that a “kitchen-type” drug laboratory was discovered in the city.

Senior Superintendent Ferdinand Ampil, officer in charge of the Malabon City Police, on Tuesday said charges for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act were being prepared against the tenant, Abby Sy, who remained at large.

Acting on a tip, authorities found some 35 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride, also known as shabu, at an apartment unit on Araneta Avenue in Barangay Potrero in a raid conducted at around 4 p.m. on Monday.

Investigation showed that Sy had been renting the unit since January.

A ranking official of the Northern Police District, who declined to be identified, said investigators were studying whether charges could also be filed against Vincent Go, the owner of the residential building.

On May 4, antinarcotics agents and the local police also dismantled what they described as a kitchen-type shabu laboratory on Governor Pascual Avenue also in Malabon.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) then said some P5 million worth of equipment and chemicals used to make the drug were recovered in the illegal facility, which was also housed in a two-story apartment.

PDEA described the first laboratory as capable of churning out five to 10 kilos of shabu worth as much as P50 million in one production cycle, which takes about two to three days.

No one was arrested in that operation. Residents told investigators that the door of the apartment was always closed and that the occupants kept to themselves.