These fugitives apparently have a penchant for posh residences.
After a manhunt that took more than a year, police finally caught up with the Chinese nationals behind the P170-million worth of illegal drugs seized during a raid on a posh condominium in Parañaque City in February last year.
On Friday, the police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF) announced the arrest of drug suspect Marvin Tan, aka “Mr. Tiu,” 39, on Tuesday night in a parking lot in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City.
Tan was arrested by virtue of a warrant issued by Parañaque Regional Trial Court Branch 259 Judge Danilo Suarez for violation of Section 11, Article II of the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, or for illegal possession of illegal drugs.
The case stemmed from a raid conducted by the AIDSOTF on Feb. 12, 2014, on a Sentosia condominium unit rented by Tan and his accomplices in a gated community along Macapagal Avenue in Parañaque.
The raid yielded 27 kilograms of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) and 20 kilograms of ephedrine, worth about P170 million. In earlier reports, the AIDSOTF said they received reports the condominium unit was being used as a storage for illegal drugs by a Chinese narcotics syndicate. But no resident was in the unit when the raid was conducted.
AIDSOTF spokesperson Chief Insp. Roque Merdegia said Tan was also a resident of Magallanes Village in Makati City, and Tuscany Garden Villa Condominium in McKinley Hills, also an exclusive gated community.
“It appears that they have many rented condo units and houses where they transfer to avoid arrest,” the spokesperson added.
In a follow-up operation late Thursday evening, AIDSOTF and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency also arrested one of Tan’s accomplices, Jacky Sia Huang alias “Tsoi” and “Huang Jin Nan,” 47, a resident of two units in Antel Platinum Tower Condominium in Salcedo Village in Makati.
“Huang is one of the cohorts of [Tan] in establishing the shabu warehouse in Sentosia condominium,” Merdegia said.