Price of shabu soars — police

Due to scarcity of supply, the price of shabu has gone up from P2,000 to between P2,500 and P2,700 or by as much as two percent in Metro Manila and in the provinces. The remaining shabu circulating in the streets are now 50 percent adulterated making it more likely for drug users to suffer mental disorder or imbalance, police said.

"It’s a positive development," said Director Efren Fernandez, head of the Narcotics Group (NarcGroup) of the increase of shabu price in the streets. "But we will not be satisfied with that number until not a gram of shabu will flow in the local market."

With this development, Fernandez said they would now concentrate on cutting off the shabu pipeline, mostly coming thru the airports and seaports of the country. Earlier, the series of raids of shabu laboratories in Pasig City and San Juan and the recovery of close to 1,000 kilos of shabu in Quezon, Zambales, Pasay City and Manila have made the shabu supply scarce in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

Superintendent Romeo Abaring, head of the Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) of the Eastern Police District (EPD) said shabu circulating in eastern Metro Manila are now 50 percent pure and its cost had gone up to P2,500, up by 25 percent.

For the month of January alone, Abaring said his men and the DEUs of the four police stations in the EPD were able to recover 22.19 grams of shabu in a total of 74 buy-bust operations they have undetaken. "The shabu confiscated figure is far below the figure listed for the same month last year," Abaring said.

"We have been launching major anti-drug operations but what we seized from our targets are small quantities of shabu," said Abaring, saying that their monthly shabu yield is getting lesser.

Because of the low shabu supply and its high price, drug users are monitored whiling away their time playing billiards, darts, video karera and other electronic video games, said Abaring.

Fernandez, who visited recently the cities of Tacloban and Ormoc, said he was briefed by local DEUs who hinted the price of shabu has gone up to P2,700. Like in Metro Manila, drug pushers in the two cities in Region 8 are also experiencing shortage in the supply of shabu, Fernandez told The Star.

Reports reaching Fernandez showed that the local counterparts of the Chinese Triads in China are saddened over the series of successful raids conducted by his men and other police units in Metro Manila and in the provinces.

"My informant tells me that the local counterparts of the Chinese triads are discussing our intensified anti-drugs campaign while playing mahjong," said Fernandez. "They are finding ways to evade our watchful eyes so they could resume their illegal business."

When told that the price of shabu has gone up, Metro Manila police chief Director Edgar Aglipay welcomed this development saying his men should work hand-in-hand with the NarcGroup to minimize the shabu supply in the streets "to the lowest level."

"We should strengthen our buy-bust operations to rid the streets of drug pushers," said Aglipay in his recent directive to the five police district directors.

With the reduced shabu supply in the local market, Fernandez said they will now concentrate in their financial investigation on the money trail of the local counterparts of the Chinese Triad in the country.