PNP taps AMLAC in hunt for Filipino conduit of Mexican drug cartel
MANILA, Philippines–The Philippine National Police sought on Tuesday the help of Anti-Money Laundering Council in hunting down the alleged Filipino-American conduit of the notorious Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel who reportedly fled to the United States.
Although the police have already launched a pursuit operation against Jorge Gomez Torres, Chief Inspector Roque Merdegia, spokesperson of the PNP Anti-IIlegal Drugs Special Operations Task, told INQUIRER.net that its agency is seeking AMLAC’s initiative to run after and seize the pieces of property of the fugitive.
Torres, a cockfighting enthusiast, allegedly used the LPL Ranch property in Lipa City, Batangas to store 84 kilograms of shabu or metamphetamine hydrochloride worth more than P400 million. The ranch was raided by police on Christmas Day and several grams of suspected illegal drugs were seized.
During the operation, the police arrested a Filipino couple identified as Argay and Rochelle Argenos and a Chinese-Filipino named Gary Tan after weeks of intelligence operations by the PNP AIDSOTF, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and US antinarcotics personnel.
They were said to be caretakers of the drug storage facility in the farm.
Merdegia said in an interview that the PNP AIDSOTF is urging the country’s financial intelligence unit to investigate the alleged properties of Torres in the Philippines aside from the ranch that served as a drug storage facility.
The PNP AIDSOTF spokesperson added that according to PNP’s sources, Torres reportedly owns a condominium unit, a farm, a house and a lot in the Philippines.
In a previous Philippine Daily Inquirer report, he said that Torres left for the United States on the second week of December before the raid.
On Monday, the PNP AIDSOTF relayed to Senator Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, the names of the Mexican, Filipino and Chinese individuals involved in the Sinaloa drug cartel in the country.
Merdegia, however, declined to divulge the names those persons.
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