Busted Cotabato City laboratory could produce 3 kilos of shabu daily

MANILA, Philippines – With its equipment, the shabu laboratory raided by joint operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Army in Cotabato City Thursday was capable of producing at least three kilos of shabu in a day.

Some P5 million worth of shabu and chemicals used to manufacture the prohibited drug was seized in the operation, which also resulted in the arrest of chemist Peter Ang Chou, the lab’s operator.

Maj. Ferdinand Marcelino, chief of PDEA’s Special Enforcement Service, said Chou, 45; his wife Norhata Bombong, 23, alias Mylene Donato; and their driver, Francis Kit Alonte, will be brought to Manila where they will be slapped with criminal charges.

The shabu lab in Purok Mahigugmaon, Roales Subdivision in Mother Barangay Rosary Heights, Cotabato City is the sixth to be busted this year.

Marcelino said the suspects had connections with those arrested in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces in the past months.

Last March 24, anti-narcotics agents, along with the National Capital Region Police Office, raided a house in Makati City where shabu chemicals were seized.

The residential unit was allegedly used as a safehouse by Chinese Triad master chemist Cai Xihe, who was arrested in Cainta, Rizal that same month.

Cai’s arrest also led to the raid on a warehouse in Quezon City where illegal substances worth about P40 million were recovered.

PDEA Director General Dionisio Santiago said the Cotabato City raid was carried out by virtue of a search warrant issued by Judge Bansawan Ibrahim of Cotabato City Regional Trial Court Branch 13.