4 Sino drug suspects fall

The police arrested the other day four alleged members of a Fujian-based drug syndicate operating in the country, who are also believed to be behind the Jan. 30 killing of a Filipino-Chinese trader in Manila.

Arrested by combined elements of the Philippine National Police-Narcotics Group were Susan Ty Lee, 57, Jianguo Li, 21; Kevin Sy, 20; and Shao Jinghuang, all natives of Fujian, China.

Lee was nabbed at around 5:45 p.m. last Thursday inside a unit of the Chinatown Steel Towers in Binondo.

Police said they believed that the suspect’s condo unit was being used by the syndicate as a "repacking" house after several self-sealing plastic sachets with shabu residues were seized by the lawmen.

Follow-up operations resulted in the arrests of Li, Sy and Shao, believed to be part of the well-entrenched syndicate’s hit squad, at the Sto. Cristo Po Taw Building, also in Binondo. They resisted arrest but were immediately subdued after a brief scuffle.

Seized during the 8 p.m. operation were several unlicensed firearms, including a magnum .357 revolver, a 9 mm pistol, ammunition, and a booklet with Chinese transcriptions.

According to Narcotics chief Director Efren Fernandez, investigators are currently looking into the possibility that the four men were responsible for the ambush-slay of David Sy-Lato, a nephew of the late rice cartel kingpin Sy Pio Lato.

Prior to the killing, police officials said Lato was providing authorities with vital information on the drug activities and money-laundering of the syndicate.

"This angle was raised in view of the fact that Lato was then engaged in an investigation on the financial links and money laundering of top members of the Fujian Group," Fernandez said.

Lato was shot dead at around 2 p.m. last Jan. 30 while he was on his way to a nearby bank in Binondo, Manila. He had just left his residence at Gedisco Mansions on El Cano Street when the gunmen approached and shot him at close range.

Lato, who was president of the Downtown Shooting Club in Binondo, was able to shoot back with his caliber .45 pistol and wound one of his attackers, later identified as Decoroso Pamesa.

Aglipay said the arrests of the drug suspects were made on the strength of warrants of arrest issued by Manila Judge Mario Guarina III, of Regional Trial Court Branch 13.

Background information on Lee showed that she is the registered owner of a KIA Carnival van seized by Narcotics agents last Dec. 21 in Manila. About 40 kilos of shabu were recovered from the car.

Fernandez said the police have filed criminal charges against Lee in connection with the seizure of a kilo of shabu in Chinatown Steel Towers on Dec. 27 last year. Police said Lee’s two sons, Juanito and Ronald Ty, were also named respondents in the case.