STA. MARCELA, Apayao – some P1.9 billion worth of chloroform ether chemical which is one of the major substance of shabu was discovered by combined police operatives and anti-narcotics agents inside the compound of a barangay kagawad at Purok 7, Malekkeg, here, recently.
Chief Superintendent Elmo Francis Sarona, acting regional director of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera, said the said substance was placed in 14 large containers which were hidden in the banana plantation of the family of barangay kagawad Felicion Guillermo Labbao, Jr..
Saronoa revealed the recovered chemical is capable of producing more than 630,000 grams of shabu once processed.
Labbao informed probers that the containers were brought to their place by his late brother Marlo Labbao, an alleged drug pusher in the area, sometime in January 2016.
However, one of the sones of the local chief executive of Ballesteros, Cagayan, who is the alleged source of shabu of Felicion’s brother, visited the place for still unknown reasons.
It was learned that Marlo was then shot to death by still unidentified armed men at the boundary of Ayaga, Abulug, Cagayan and Malekkeg, Sta. Marcela, Apayao last July 22, 2016.
Probers learned from Marlo’s wife that the actual number of containers containing the shabu substance was 50, 14 were kept in Malekkeg while 36 were kept in barangays Ayaga, Simayong, Pinili and Guidam, all of Abulug, Cagayan.
Sarona directed the operating troops to secure the area where the containers of the shabu substance were found while samples of the chemical were taken by the police operatives and transmitted to Camp Crame for the conduct of appropriate laboratory tests to ascertain the type of chemical.
Apayao officials vehemently denied the existence of a shabu laboratory in their areas of jurisdiction, saying that it just so happened that the chemicals were found in their place considering that it was the request of a source of illegal drugs from Cagayan to hide the containers in their place.
By Dexter A. See