‘Shabu’ lab found in subdivision raid

Photo from PNP-PIO

ANGELES CITY—Around P1.1 billion worth of liquid methamphetamine and equipment used in the manufacture of “shabu,” an illegal drug, were seized on Tuesday morning by antinarcotics agents and city policemen from a house supposedly used as a laboratory in a subdivision here.

The chemical, contained in 45 gallons, was found in a house on Don Vicente Street in Villa Dolores in Barangay Santo Domingo during a court-approved search at about 9 a.m., said Gladys Rosales, regional chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

Police said the house, owned by a lawyer, had been leased two months ago to a man identified only as Chang. It was once rented by an actor, they said.

Five persons, including three Taiwanese, are now being hunted by the lawmen. They were not around during the police search.

Rosales said the seized chemical was a step away from being processed into shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride). The stench of the chemical had apparently drawn the attention of neighbors.

This was the second shabu laboratory found in Angeles.

On March 16, PDEA agents seized equipment that can manufacture 10 to 15 kilograms of shabu daily from a house on Clover Street in Timog Subdivision. They recovered 99 sacks of suspected sodium hydroxide, 19 sacks of unknown substance, 15 pails of suspected ammonia, red phosphorus, ethanol, cupric sulfate, iodine, ethanol and assorted laboratory equipment.

Since 2014, two laboratories have been busted in Central Luzon. The first, which yielded P4 billion worth of shabu, was found in a private warehouse in Greenville Subdivision in the City of San Fernando in Pampanga, south of Angeles.

The second, a warehouse of a farmers’ cooperative, was dismantled in a town in Tarlac province, north of Angeles. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon