MANILA – More than P20 million worth of suspected shabu were seized and four Hong Kong nationals were arrested by government antidrug agents in separate operations in Parañaque and Manila.
Caught were Lam King Wah, 35, of Sea Residences in Pasay City; Wong Ka Lok, 38, currently billeted at Red Planet Hotel in Pasay City; Lam Wing Bun, 52; and Lang Min Sun, 56, said Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director-general Aaron Aquino.
Aquino said these foreigners were suspected members of the 14K, or Hong Kong Triad, drug syndicate.
Wah and Lok were arrested at around 5 a.m. Tuesday near a gasoline station near Aseana Power Station along Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard, Parañaque.
They yielded 2 kilos of suspected shabu worth P13.6 million and 16 liters of chemicals, a mixture of acetone and methanol. Acetone can be used in manufacturing dangerous drugs.
Aquino said Lam and Wong were believed facilitators or handlers of chemists involved in operating a kitchen-type illegal drug laboratory in Unit 16-G on the 16th floor of Tower Oceanaire Residences in Pasay.
On the other hand Bun and Sun, both chemists, were arrested at around 9 a.m. Tuesday in front of Red Planet Hotel in Manila.
A kilo of shabu worth P6.8 million was seized from them.
Bun and Sun were suspected to have a hand in the 20 kilos of shabu worth P136 million seized Monday in an operation on a service road in Roxas Boulevard that resulted in the arrest of Hong Kong national Lin Hua Sen, also known as Ivan Go Santos, 42, of Antipolo City.
“We noticed that they are bringing in big luggage inside this condo unit. Our conclusion is that they are smuggling into our country crystalized shabu. They then repackage it here,” Aquino said.
An investigation into how these Hong Kong nationals were able to bring in shabu into the country is ongoing. They may be using a “backdoor” in Mindanao or the seaports, he said.
Intelligence information that led to these operations “came from our international counterparts from the Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau and the Office of the National Narcotics Control Commission of China,” said Aquino. (PNA)
