Missing shabu lost while in transit – NBI agent

The missing nine kilos of shabu could have disappeared while in transit from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to the court and not while in the custody of the bureau’s evidence laboratory.

"It could not have been taken from the vault because the vault has several keys held by different custodians. The disappearance could have had happened while the drugs was in transit between the NBI and the court," said an NBI agent who declined to be identified.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the discovery of the missing shabu, some personnel of the NBI’s forensic chemistry division, including its head, Idabel Pagulayan, could be booted out because of the incident.

The missing drugs worth some P20 million was part of the 246.7 kilos of shabu stashed in the vault of the division.

The drugs were seized by the NBI during a raid at a condominium unit registered to a certain Sandra Lim in December 2000.– Mike Frialde