DIRECTOR General Ronald dela Rosa, Philippine National Police chief, inspects the vessel that authorities intercepted on Monday night in Subic, Zambales, on suspicion that it is being used to manufacture and transport illegal drugs in the country. Four Chinese aboard the ship were arrested after a search yielded at least 500 grams of “shabu.” PHOTOS BY ALLAN MACATUNO
SUBIC, Zambales—A 50-meter-long fishing vessel that had been anchored in the sea off this town for days, was boarded by the police on Monday night following a tip that it was being used as a floating shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) laboratory.
Armed with a search warrant, agents of the Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (PNP-AIDG) inspected the vessel at 9 p.m., and arrested its occupants, four Chinese from Hong Kong. One of the Chinese men possessed a plastic bag containing suspected shabu weighing about 500 grams.
Director General Ronald dela Rosa, PNP chief, arrived here at midnight and said the police were trying to determine if the vessel had any connection to the 180 kilograms of suspected shabu dug up on July 3 in an abandoned farm in Claveria, Cagayan province.
Hong Kong residents Lo Wing Fai, 42; Leung Shu Fook, 49; Kwok Kam Wah, 47; and Chan Kwok Tung, 29, were taken to Camp Crame and would be charged today with violating the Dangerous Drugs Act as well as immigration and maritime laws.
In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said the Bureau of Immigration (BI) will wait for the final result of the criminal prosecution against the four foreigners, who will not be deported until they have served their sentences.
Morente said he instructed Arvin Cesar Santos, BI legal division chief, to investigate the immigration status of the suspects and file deportation charges against them.
Senior Supt. Albert Ferro, PNP-AIDG director, said they suspected one of the detained Chinese was a chemist.
Emerson Margate, Central Luzon director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, said residents in the fishing village of Calapandayan here saw the boat anchored in the waters of Subic.“There was an intelligence report that shabu was being manufactured on a boat so we kept on monitoring our shores,” Margate said.
Villagers also reported that occupants of the vessel had rowed to shore on small boats to meet with local fishermen. The report had not been verified.
During the search, the raiding team found a hydrogenerator, which, Margate said, could be a prime equipment used to produce shabu. A unit can manufacture 50 kg of shabu in one cycle, he said.
But the police were pursuing the theory that the vessel served as a shabu laboratory or was “used to transport shabu from overseas,” Dela Rosa told reporters.
“For sure, we will be connecting some dots to see if there’s any link to the drug raid in Claveria,” he said. With reports from Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon and Julie M. Aurelio in Manila