‘Shabu’ smuggling suspect stopped from leaving PH

Richard Chen, aka Richard Tan INQUIRER file photo / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Immigration officers barred Richard Tan, one of the suspects in the May shipment of P6.4 billion worth of “shabu” (crystal meth) that slipped past the Customs bureau, from leaving the country before dawn on Thursday.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said it intercepted Chen Ju Long, alias Richard Tan, as he was about to board a China Eastern Airlines flight to Shanghai at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport at Clark Freeport.

BI spokesperson Antonette Mangrobang said Tan was booked to depart on Flight No. MU 5046.

Bound for Shanghai

Tan was placed in an immigration lookout bulletin order, issued on Aug. 3 by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, for his alleged involvement in the billion-peso drug shipment to the country.

The lookout bulletin also listed six other suspects in the smuggling case, as well as a Customs broker and an official of the Bureau of Customs.

The bulletin directed immigration officers to be on the lookout for these individuals at the country’s international ports and seaports.

On seeing Tan at the Clark airport, immigration officers referred him to immigration supervisors Abubakar Rasuman and Cynthia Reodica.

“His departure was deferred and he (was) advised to secure an ‘allow departure order’ from the Department of Justice,” Mangrobang added.

Faeldon exonerated

Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) exonerated resigned Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon and his erstwhile chief intelligence officer, Neil Anthony Estrella, of drug trafficking charges in connection with the huge drug shipment.

Largest drug haul

The charges against Faeldon, Estrella and several others were brought by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) following the seizure of the drugs in a warehouse in Valenzuela City on May 26.

The 605-kilogram shipment is regarded as the largest haul of illegal drugs in the country.