The mega shabu lab raid 15 years ago
On September 24, 2004, elements of PDEA-7 and its central office raided the Caps R Us Warehouse in Barangay Umapad, Mandaue City. Two other support laboratories were raided the following day in the same city. The big lab became what was known as the mega shabu lab, the biggest shabu lab in Asia.
Seized were 1.1 tons of shabu and chemicals. The drug complaint was filed on September 28, 2004 before the Mandaue City Prosecutors Office, thereafter when the case was raffled to Branch 28, RTC Mandaue City, Cebu, on October 1, 2004, the presiding judge, Marilyn Lagura Yap, conducted an ocular inspection. The dangerous drugs seized during the raid was destroyed on October 14, 2004 as what is mandated by Section 21 of Republic Act 9165, that drugs must be destroyed (with representative samples to be left for the trial) within 24 hours after the court has conducted the ocular inspection and within 72 hours after the filing of the case before the court. The solidified and liquefied shabu were destroyed by kiln drying at the CEMEX Cement Plant presided by then PDEA director general Anselmo Avenido, witnessed by the DOJ, the media, DOH, DENR, the PNP Crime Lab headed by Senior Superintendent Myrna Areola, and NGO representatives. The chemicals were disposed of at the water treatment facility in Inayawan, Cebu City.
The raid was led by Senior Superintendent Amado Marquez Jr. (PNPA Class 81 Golden Kampilan awardee).
The PDEA-7 was formed on August 14, 2002 with the assumption of its first regional director, Senior Superintendent Robelito Ruiz Comilang, succeeded by Senior Superintendent Gaudencio Bonotan Pagaling Jr. on November 12, 2003 and Senior Superintendent Amado Marquez Jr. on September 2, 2004, who became the mega shabu lab buster.
Arrested during the raid were nine foreign nationals mostly from the Peoples Republic of China and its financier, Calvin de Jesus Tan, extradited from Hong Kong to Cebu in 2005, the only successful extradition of such kind in Asia and the Pacific. They were all convicted by the RTC on February 23, 2012. For the extradition effort, Congressmen Antonio V. Cuenco, Roque R. Ablan Jr., DOJ Secretary Raul Gonzalez, DOJ Usec/Dean Ernesto L. Pineda, Senior Superintendent Amado Marquez Jr., Atty. Jose Calida (former DOJ Usec, DDB executive director and presently solicitor general) and lawyer Paul Oaminal (designated by DOJ as case consultant of the mega shabu lab case, the only private lawyer given such authority in the history of the department) were conferred the Congressional Plaque of Recognition by then Speaker Jose de Venecia.
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