China tightens watch on shabu peddlers

China has pledged to go after its citizens involved in drug trafficking in the Philippines following last week’s arrests of Chinese nationals in police raids on two shabu factories.

Beijing also promised to work closely with the Arroyo administration’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs, police anti-narcotics chief Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay said.

Aglipay heads the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force.

"We will forward to my Chinese counterparts the names of their citizens involved in the proliferation of shabu in the country, including the names of people they are calling in mainland China," Aglipay said in an interview.

Beijing was also asked to keep an eye on its citizens who travel to the Philippines, Aglipay said.

Aglipay and several other law enforcement officials met with Chinese officials late last Monday to discuss close international cooperation in curbing drug trafficking.

"We agreed to hold monthly meetings to update each other on our country’s progress in the campaign on illegal drugs," he said.

Aglipay said anti-narcotics agencies of other countries have been helping local law enforcement agencies by providing information on suspects.

"We are receiving a lot of information which my men are validating at the moment," he said. He refused to elaborate.

Several shabu laboratories busted recently by Aglipay’s task force were operated by Chinese nationals. It was not immediately known if the suspects were staying illegally in the country.

Most of the estimated two dozen big-tme drug gangs operating in the Philippines are run by Chinese nationals, police earlier said.

Four Chinese nationals were arrested when police raided a large clandestine shabu manufacturing facility in Antipolo City in Rizal, last week.

A ton of shabu and over seven tons of chemical ingredients for manufacturing the drug worth more than P2.2 billion were seized, making it the largest bust ever made by local police.

Also last week, three Chinese nationals were also arrested in a similar raid in nearby Pasig City.

In July, police arrested Chinese national Li Ya Lan, also known as Jackson Dy, who is allegedly the third largest shabu trafficker in the Philippines.

Dy’s shabu factory, concealed in a former beach resort in Bacoor, Cavite, could produce an estimated 30 to 40 kilos of shabu a day, authorities said.

Illegal drugs have been blamed for many crimes in the country. The most abused is shabu, followed by marijuana.