P420-M shabu seized in Lipa raid; 3 nabbed

BATANGAS, Philippines – Combined elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the police seized 84 kilos of shabu worth about P420 million in raid on a farm in Lipa City this province yesterday.

The PDEA operatives, together with elements of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF) and the Batangas police, were armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Fernando Sagun of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 78, when they swooped down on the farm owned by a certain George Torres, a Filipino-American, in Barangay Inosluban. 

The raiding team arrested farm manager Gary Tan, 37, and caretakers Arjay Argenos, 29, and Rochelle Argenos, 28.

The shabu was kept in four black suitcases, packed in one-kilo, vacuum-sealed plastic bags. Also seized were a .45-caliber pistol and a magazine with 10 bullets, and a 12-gauge Winchester rifle with four bullets.  

A police official, who requested anonymity, said the illegal drugs came from Mexico.

“We were monitoring this group since September until we caught them red-handed today,” a PDEA agent said.

Torres, who raises fighting cocks, was not around when the raid happened.

“This is truly a good Christmas for law enforcement with this latest accomplishment,” said Chief Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, head of the Philippine National Police-Public Information Office. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Ed Amoroso