Drug queen earned P20 M a month – PDEA

MANILA, Philippines — Taiwanese drug queen Yu Yuk Lai earned around P20 million per month from her illegal drug trade in the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City, officials said yesterday.

Levi Ortiz, special enforcement service director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), said they received information that Yu has been receiving around P5 million every week from selling illegal drugs while serving her sentence after her conviction on drug charges.

“What we know is she receives money every week. Our conservative estimate is P5 million,” Ortiz said in a phone interview.

Yu was caught with P5 million worth of shabu and bank checks when agents searched her cell at the detention facility. Her daughter, Diana Yu Uy, was caught in another operation at the GY J Condominium in San Miguel, Manila near Malacañang the same day.

Diana was her alleged distributor, smuggling shabu into the CIW by hiding packets in sacks of rice and other items sent to the detention facility.

PDEA director general Aaron Aquino earlier said Diana used her rice retailing business as a front for her illegal activities.

Meanwhile, Diana’s security escort from the Police Security Protection Group (PSPG), Police Officer 3 Walter Vidad, is being investigated to determine if he is also involved in illegal drugs.

Vidad, according to Ortiz, denied any knowledge about Diana’s illegal activities.

 “He is now under investigation. We are checking if he is involved,” PSPG director Chief Superintendent Joel Crisostomo Garcia said in an interview with reporters.

Records showed Vidad has been detailed as Diana’s security since 2015.

A document signed by Diana and her sister stated another policeman, Police Officer 2 Faisal Sawadjaan, was also assigned as their escort.

Diana asked for and received protective security in 2010 after she and her sister, Joann, were kidnapped in 2006 in Mandaluyong, where they were only released after seven days when they paid ransom.

Asked if lapses were committed as they provided security to a daughter of a convicted drug queen, Garcia said: “We could not say there was a lapse in the conduct of assessment because what is being done is not a complete background check.”

Garcia maintained there are no fees for the services of policemen detailed as security escorts.