LOOK: PDEA busts shabu lab in Batangas

Photo courtesy of PDEA Public Information Office

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) discovered a laboratory being used in manufacturing shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) and ecstasy inside a farm in Batangas province on Thursday.

Photo courtesy of PDEA Public Information Office

In a statement, PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said the discovery of the laboratory was a result of intelligence support from the Office of the National Narcotics Control Commission (ONNCC), Narcotics Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, People’s Republic of China.

Photo courtesy of PDEA Public Information Office

The tip resulted in the arrest of two alleged Chinese chemists identified as Tian Baoquan, and Guo Zixing; and their reported Filipino cohorts Eduardo Lorenzo, 59; Rosaleo Cesar, 49; and Amancio Gallarde, 40, in Hingoso Farm, Barangay Sto. Niño, Ibaan, Batangas, at around 6:00 a.m. on Thursday.

Photo courtesy of PDEA Public Information Office

A separate operation led to the arrest of another alleged Chinese chemist identified as Hong Dy, and a certain Nestor Baguio in Lipa, Batangas also on Thursday. Hours later, another follow-up operation was conducted in Merry Homes, Barangay Francisco, Tagaytay City that led to the arrest of Xie Jiansheng, the alleged Chinese organizer and handler of the arrested chemists.

Officials of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and from the local government explain the discovery of the shabu laboratory in Batangas. Photo courtesy of PDEA Public Information Office

Aquino said Baoquan, Zixing, Dy and Jiansheng, who put up the shabu laboratory in alleged collusion with their Filipino cohorts, are connected with the infamous “Golden Triangle”– “notoriously known as the world’s foremost drug-producing region operating near the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.”

According to Chinese intelligence reports, the shabu and ecstasy-producing laboratory was organized by a Hongkong-based drug kingpin or financier. /jpv