Chinese chemist's safehouse raided in Makati

MANILA, Philippines - Anti-narcotics agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and operatives of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) raided another house in Makati City Tuesday night where chemicals used in making shabu were again found.

A Chinese national who is allegedly a top illegal drug maker for a criminal gang has been arrested, the country’s anti-drug chief said Tuesday.

Police arrested Cai Xihe on Friday in a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory in Cainta town east of Manila, said Dionisio Santiago, head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Santiago said Cai was among seven Chinese drug makers who have been arrested in separate raids in Manila, suburban Quezon City and Cainta since last week. Police dismantled four clandestine drug laboratories and seized at least $4.2 million worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride, popularly known as shabu, he said.

He said Cai was a member of a Chinese triad, a mafia-like criminal gang. “We have dealt another crippling blow to the operations of drug-trafficking syndicates operating in the country with the arrest of Cai Xihe, a Chinese triad master chemist,” Santiago said. He said Cai is wanted by the China National Narcotics Control Commission, which has demanded his deportation.

“They are afraid of being deported because they face the death penalty in China,” he said of the Chinese traffickers. The Philippines has abolished the death penalty.

The country’s illegal drugs trade is worth an estimated $6.3 billion to $8.4 billion yearly, Santiago said earlier this year.

Last month, a US State Department report said the Philippines continues to face an “immense” drug problem despite efforts to disrupt major trafficking syndicates and dismantle clandestine labs.

Corruption among law enforcers and officials and vast stretches of unpatrolled coastline make the country an attractive narcotics source and transshipment point.

As of press time, other details of the operation remained sketchy in light of PDEA’s claim that it was not the lead operating unit that conducted the raid.

The Chinese national is said to be holding a ranking position in the triad as based on a tattoo on his right hand’s middle finger and how he is also wanted by the China National Narcotics Control Commission.   – With AP