'Kitchen type setup, new way of making illegal drugs'

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said on Tuesday that the kitchen-type setup is the new way of manufacturing illegal drugs.

The PDEA said this following the recent arrest of three suspects and the seizure of P1 million worth of illegal drugs in a high-end condominium in Makati City on Jan. 18.

PDEA director general Arturo Cacdac Jr. said that the suspects used ordinary kitchen utensils as laboratory equipment in concocting a new mixture of ‘fly high’, an illegal drug trending among club and party-goers.

"They grind together shabu, ecstasy and Chinese viagra called ‘cialis’ using a mortar and pestle then pulverizing them further with a blender to become powder and repacked into capsules,"he said.

PDEA exposed the  ‘fly high', a new variety of ecstasy in December 2013 after a buy-bust operation in Quezon City where 38 green capsules were seized.

The capsules retrieved from the operation were shabu-laced ecstasy only, whereas the drugs recovered from the operation in Makati Prime Tower, Makati City were mixed with Chinese viagra.

Three suspects were arrested, including a showbiz writer and an interior designer, while approximately 400 capsules of assorted dangerous drugs, 192 grams of shabu and methylenedioxymethamphethamine or ecstasy were seized.

"Fly high consumers were identified as belonging to the high-end of society and the method used by drug syndicates in manufacturing new kinds of illegal drugs is alarming and very dangerous," Cacdac said.