By KATE LOUISE B. JAVIER
A day after the raid on a clandestine drug laboratory in Batangas, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives swooped down yesterday morning on an alleged shabu and ecstasy laboratory in Malabon City and nabbed two men including a Filipino-Chinese.
Armed with a search warrant issued by Executive Judge Reynaldo Alhambra of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 53, the team led by PDEA director General Aaron Aquino busted the laboratory located near an elementary school in Barangay Tinejeros.
Arrested during the operation were identified as 53-year-old Jiang Minshan, a Filipino-Chinese and his Filipino driver Larry Santos, 59.
During an interview, Santos denied the allegations, saying they were just inside Minshan’s house in Marikina City when PDEA agents nabbed them for no reason around 12 noon on Thursday.
Seized during the raid were suspected equipment and assorted chemicals used in the manufacture of illegal drugs like Safrole, a main ingredient for ecstasy, PDEA spokesman Derrick Careon said.
“We did not recover any finished product here but indicators point to the production of shabu and ecstasy based on the raw materials and equipment found here. We also found containers here but most of these were mislabeled. But it can also be possible that they are experimenting other amphetamine types of stimulants,” Carreon explained.
Carreon said the operation was a follow-up to the Thursday’s raid on the shabu laboratory in Ibaan, Batangas, where they arrested Chinese chemists and four Filipino cohorts.
He added that the discovery of the laboratory was made through the intelligence support provided by National Narcotics Control Commission and People’s Republic of China to the PDEA.
“We are with our Chinese counterparts. This is a running operation since September last year” Carreon said.
Carreon also said that the laboratory was operated by members of the Hong Kong-based Dragonwood syndicate. They are also connected to the Golden Triangle drug group that operates in Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar.
“They’ve set up facilities here but they are also connected to the group operating also in the Golden Triangle,” Carreon explained.
Meanwhile, Carreon said the laboratory did not fully operate, saying the building was just for experiments.
Meanwhile, residents in the area said they sometimes smell foul odor when they passed by the building.
The agency has yet to conduct a full inventory of the items seized in the laboratory, Carreon said.
