Shabu manufacturing plant found in mine site in Cagayan

TUGUEGARAO CITY—Chemicals used to manufacture shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) were uncovered by authorities inside a warehouse located at a private mining site in Tallungan Village, Aparri town in Cagayan province on Thursday, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said on Friday.

The warehouse at the compound of the Hua Xia Mining Corporation also contained shabu processing apparatus and items that could be used to manufacture explosives, said Laurefel Gabales, PDEA Cagayan Valley director.

Since the revitalized drug war of the government, drug manufacturers had been going deeper in their operations to avoid detection by authorities.

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The mining site’s owners identified as Lito Lim and Michael Tan were not at the scene when the agents of PDEA raided the place.

Gabales said the PDEA would likely include Lim and Tan in the case for manufacturing illegal drugs, which PDEA intends to file on May 22.

The raid was conducted at 12:30 p.m. by a joint team from PDEA, the Cagayan police and Philippine Army’s 17th Infantry Battalion. The team was armed with a search warrant issued by Aparri Regional Trial Court Judge Oscar Zaldivar.

“We are still completing an inventory of the seized chemicals and other items, which took us until Friday dawn to list all of them,” Gabales said. JPV/rga