P1-B shabu found in Caloocan lab raid

MANILA, Philippines - Anti-drug police officers confiscated at least 300 kilos of shabu, with a street value of around P1 billion, when they raided a warehouse being used as a clandestine laboratory in Kaybiga, Caloocan City before noon yesterday.

Caloocan City police chief Senior Superintendent Jude Santos said when the raiding team – composed of local police officers and members of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF) – arrived at 22 Diamond street, the warehouse’s occupants had fled.

“The operation resulted in the seizure of around 300 kilos of almost finished methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, a huge supply of controlled precursors and special chemicals, and equipment used in the manufacture of shabu,” Santos told The STAR.

He said the shabu laboratory could have been in operation for almost a year.

According to Caloocan City Prosecutor Darwin Canete, who was present during the raid, the occupants left only minutes before the police arrived.

“The lights were still on, there were groceries and fresh food inside,” he said.

Canete said some of the shabu had been packed like three-in-one instant coffee sachets, with the label in Chinese.

He said the police officers were still in the process of collecting evidence when he left the area at around 4 p.m. yesterday.

Chief Inspector Rodrigo Soriano, Caloocan City police investigation chief, said that in October last year, the local police informed the AIDSOTF of intelligence reports about the suspected existence of a shabu lab in a warehouse in Kaybiga.

Soriano said the AIDSOTF had information that as early as May, a China-based drug syndicate headed by two men identified only as “Mr. Chua” and “Mr. Sy” were planning to transfer their illegal drug operations to the Philippines.

The police created “Oplan Iceberg,” a group of crack anti-narcotics operatives tasked to track down and neutralize the syndicate, Soriano said.

On Wednesday, Quezon City Judge Fernando Sagun Jr. issued a search warrant to the AIDSOTF for the raid of the warehouse, which was reportedly a former factory that recycled scrap metal into kitchenware.

The warehouse sits on a 1,000-square meter property.