PDEA lists signs to watch out for in fight vs drugs

This underground “shabu” laboratory was busted by the PDEA in Magalang, Pampanga, on Sept. 9, 2016. The seven Chinese suspects used a piggery and an animal feeds factory as a cover. —TONETTE T. OREJAS

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— Keep an eye on that hut. Watch out, too, for structures that consume unusually high amounts of electricity or homes with too many washing machines or refrigerators. And never lose track of people who are jobless but own brand new motorcycles.

These could be telltale signs of drug trafficking, according to Juvenal Azurin, head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Central Luzon.

Azurin gave the tips to 505 village chiefs in Pampanga province who gathered for a peace and order forum on Thursday.

Villages’ role

PDEA has taken the lead in President Duterte’s war on illegal drugs after scandals forced him to exclude the Philippine National Police in the campaign.

The antidrug agency has been trying to help villages play bigger roles in the drug war after five drug laboratories were shut down in the province in the last three years.

PDEA, Azurin said, is sharing basic information because “reports of citizens are important in our efforts to eradicate drugs.”

In a bid to familiarize village leaders about the ingredients being used to make “shabu” (methampetamine hydrochloride or poor man’s cocaine) Azurin presented packages of chemicals that are used to manufacture shabu.

Azurin said the mixture included acetone that is used to remove nail polish, lithium for batteries, toluene that is a component of brake fluid and hydrochloric acid which is used for making plastics.

“Clandestine laboratories can be anywhere,” Azurin said.

“These are in a hut in a mountain in Lasam town in Cagayan, inside a piggery in Naguilian town in La Union or underground in San Miguel town in Bulacan,” he said.

Appliances for drugs

He said washing machines are used as mixers while refrigerators are used for crystallizing shabu.

Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda said garbage collectors will be shown the packages of chemicals used in making shabu and other illegal drugs so they could alert law enforcers if they see these.

Sen. Tito Sotto, who joined the forum, said, “We need to develop drug-resistant people and communities.”

As of Feb. 15, PDEA records showed that 76,195 pushers and users in Central Luzon had surrendered. The biggest groups of those who surrendered came from Bulacan province (24,846), Nueva Ecija province (15,880) and Pampanga (12,258).

Sotto said he had asked the Department of Education to include drug awareness lessons for Grades 6 to 10 students.

shabulab
This underground “shabu” laboratory was busted by the PDEA in Magalang, Pampanga, on Sept. 9, 2016. The seven Chinese suspects used a piggery and an animal feeds factory as a cover. —TONETTE T. OREJAS