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Saturday, June 25, 2005
Dog food used as ‘cover’ for shabu packages
Sacks of rotting dog food, among others, were what met the lawyers for the defense and prosecution yesterday, as they inspected one of two warehouses believed to be support facilities for the Umapad shabu laboratory in Mandaue City.
“Why is there dog food here, when this is supposed to be a shabu factory?” said a puzzled Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Augustine Vestil, who led the lawyers in inspecting the bodega in Barangay Paknaan.
“Is dog food a main ingredient in making shabu?” the judge added.
One observer said that what was inside the warehouse pointed more to somebody engaged in some food or feeds business, rather than the narcotics trade.
But the dog chow has nothing to do with making shabu, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 Chief Amado Marquez Jr. said.
He is “absolutely certain” that the warehouse was directly connected to the laboratory in Umapad.
“The shabu is placed in a separate bag and then placed inside the sack, underneath the dog food. This is so that it can then be transported easily,” he explained.
He said more dog food was discovered in the second warehouse, located in Barangay Looc, which is now also under police control. They also found sacks of fish feed inside the warehouse.
Among the other items they took note of were over 200 bags of iodized salt and some caustic soda.
While both are deemed household cleaning items, sodium chloride and sodium hydroxide are deemed “essential chemicals” in making shabu.
Marquez believes that the shabu is made in Umapad and then transported to the Paknaan facility for cooling, sorting, packing and transportation.
Yesterday’s inspection was part of the pre-trial of the second criminal case against 11 people. They were arrested during the Sept. 24, 2004 raid that shut the Umapad facility down. (KNR)
(June 25, 2005 issue)
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