Over five hundred seventy five kilos of shabu tucked into at least five hundred seventy three pieces of tea packs, marked with Chinese characters, were seized at a rented “warehouse” of a Chinese national at Purok 4, Irisan barangay Wednesday morning.
Chinese national Hui Ming, alias “Tan,” was caught at the raid initiated by the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU) of the Cordillera police with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents.
Anti-narcotics agents from the RDEU earlier sought from a local court a search warrant after painstaking intelligence operations against the Chinese national, said Cordillera police director Brigadier General David Peredo, Jr., who had directed policemen in the highland region of a sustained effort to rid the six provinces and two cities in the Cordillera of illegal drugs.
Authorities, who placed the value of the seized drugs at over P4.1 billion, perhaps one of the biggest shabu haul north of Manila in recent years, have yet to inventory the shabu and file charges against Ming.
Irisan is one of the 4 remaining barangays in the city that have yet to be cleared from the presence of illegal drugs.
The huge drug haul caught residents and city officials by surprise as the said rented warehouse is situated near the headquarters of the Baguio fire station in the said area.
The drug haul was a long-time initiative of the regional drug enforcement unit of the Police Regional Office–Cordillera until it was executed leading to the discovery of the drugs in the said rented warehouse.
Earlier, Baguio city has been known as the transshipment point of illegal drugs, particularly marijuana, from the highlands to the lowlands, and shabu from the lowlands to the highlands.
Authorities are looking into the possibility of the alleged linkage of the arrested Chinese national to corrupt politicians, businessmen and law enforcers that allowed the smooth transport of the contraband from the Metro Manila area to the city.
Authorities took more than 3 weeks to enhance their intelligence buildup on the presence of the contraband prior to the execution of the well planned anti-illegal drug operation that was successfully executed with no loss of lives nor damaged properties.
Aside from the PRO-COR regional drug enforcement unit, other members of the raiding team include the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
The confiscated illegal drugs were brought to the PRO-COR headquarters in Camp Dangwa, La Trinidad, Benguet and the regional crime laboratory office for the conduct of the chemical analysis of the confiscated contraband to ascertain the quality of the same.
The Chinese national was taken into custody by the authorities for the necessary interrogation.