Pampanga town sells pigs used as front for shabu lab

The police uncovered a suspected shabu laboratory beneath a piggery warehouse in the remote village of Balitucan in Pampanga’s Magalang town last Sept. 7. Photo by Tonette Orejas

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Magalang town has sold 4,000 hogs at a pig farm concealing an underground shabu laboratory which was shut down on Sept. 5 by the police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

Marcial Alfaro, village chief of Balitucan, said the sale to a local food processor was covered by a municipal resolution.

Alfaro said the proceeds, which were not disclosed, were set aside and would be released to the rightful owner of the hogs that were housed in four large pens in the 3.5-hectare compound.

The underground laboratory operated beneath a feed mill inside the compound.

“The pigs have to be sold because the feeds were running out and 8 to 10 pigs were dying each day,” Alfaro said.

The village chief said he borrowed P80,000 to pay the salaries of 12 workers at the piggery until the end of September.

PDEA found 20 kilograms of ephedrine, 468 grams of methamphetamine and assorted equipment in the compound and charged six Chinese nationals of violating Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act). JE

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