Legal shipment yields P180-M ‘shabu’

OPENED foil packs and drilling machines still packed in crates are found inside a warehouse in Valenzuela City rented by two Chinese-Filipino men, (below) believed to be members of an international gang which smuggles drugs into the country using legitimate shipments. Rodrigo de Guzman

Authorities have started going after a syndicate operating in parts of Southeast Asia, including China and the Philippines, which conceals drugs in legitimate shipments to smuggle the contraband into other countries.

On Tuesday, agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group of the Philippine National Police (PNP-AIDG) seized around P180 million worth of suspected “shabu” or methamphetamine hydrochloride in Valenzuela City from two Chinese-Filipino men, both believed to be members of the international drug network, according to PNP-AIDG spokesperson Chief Insp. Roque Merdegia.

Sonny Perrine Ang, 67, and Tiuseco Sia Benito, 47, were arrested around 8:30 a.m. after the van they were riding in came out of a warehouse on East Service Road in Barangay Lawang Bato, Valenzuela City.

Recovered from them were three bags containing 36 vacuum-sealed aluminum foil packs, each containing a kilo of shabu.

The joint team next raided the warehouse where they found 12 heavy-duty turret drilling machines still packed in crates and wrapped in cellophane while surrounded by 148 opened foil packs.

Authorities believed that the drugs seized from Ang and Benito were hidden in the base of the drilling machines and originally wrapped in the foil packs, according to Glenn Malapad, PDEA spokesperson.

“[The shabu] was very well-concealed,” Merdegia said in a phone interview.

He added that the antinarcotics teams had requested search warrants from Quezon City Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Fernando Sagun Jr. after receiving information earlier in the week that a syndicate, reportedly from China or Taiwan, would be “legitimately” shipping the machines to the Philippines, with the drugs concealed (“pinalaman”) within.

PNP-AIDG director Senior Supt. Antonio Gardiola said the shipment arrived at the Port of Manila on Jan. 3. It was claimed on Jan. 9 and brought to the warehouse where it remained until Tuesday’s raid.

The suspects are reportedly members of the Asia Drug Network, a narcotics gang operating in China, the Philippines and Hong Kong, Gardiola added.

They started renting the warehouse last month, giving a downpayment of P30,000 to the owner, a barangay councilor. The barangay official, however, is not yet considered a suspect as he legitimately rents out the warehouse as storage space, Merdegia said.

The country’s antinarcotics agencies had coordinated the Bureau of Customs with the prosecutors of Kaohsiung, Taiwan; the Taiwan Bureau of Investigation, and Ministry of Justice to pull off the operation.

Gardiola, in a statement, expressed his gratitude to their foreign counterparts and to the customs bureau. “Without their valuable support, the operation would be a futility,” he said.

Gardiola stressed that the PNP-AIDG was now well-equipped enough to go after high-value targets and international drug syndicates responsible for the importation of shabu.

Merdegia, meanwhile, said they learned of the syndicate’s movements only late last year although he believes it has been operating for a long time in the Philippines as it has already established a network of members and a system to move the contraband about.

Antinarcotics agencies will continue to track down other members of the syndicate, he added. With Jodee A. Agoncillo