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Saturday, February 19, 2005
'Shabu lab' discovered inside abandoned mansion
By Albert B. Lacanlale
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- A mansion in a posh subdivision in this city may have been for some time the lair of a big-time manufacturer of the illegal drug methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.
Police, bureau and drug enforcement agents stormed Friday the abandoned house and lot, whose value was pegged at 26 million, at Hacienda Royale Subdivision in Barangay Baliti and discovered a shabu laboratory there.
The two-storey mansion, reportedly owned by a Taiwanese identified as Jaime Tan, may have been, according to National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco, the same person who owned a warehouse that housed a shabu laboratory in Valenzuela City. That warehouse was raided by bureau agents recently.
Equipped with a four-camera monitoring system, the mansion may have been abandoned for almost a month before it was stormed by government operatives Friday.
The suspects were apparently preparing to celebrate the Chinese New Year when something happened that made them decide to abandon the house.
Wycoco said the house's occupants might have fled following the series of anti-narcotics operation conducted by government authorities.
The raid on the mansion was made by virtue of a search warrant issued February 11 by Judge Omar T. Viola of Angeles City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 56.
The group was assisted by NBI Region 3 Director Edward A. Villarta, assistant regional director Ruel M. Lasala and NBI Central Luzon head agent and executive officer for operations Narciso "Jun" Peña.
Beaune Villaraza, NBI forensic chemist, positively assessed the house as a shabu laboratory after recovering several chemicals and equipment from the premises.
Chemicals found within the house include two bags of activated charcoal used in whitening crystallized shabu; two bags of sodium hydroxide, a vital ingredient of shabu; and four five-gallon containers of suspected liquid shabu.
Also recovered from the house were several pieces of tooters; three chest-type freezers; one oven used in drying shabu; three hydrogen tanks; one vacuum machine; and several blister packs of assorted medicines, all of which have Chinese wordings.
Posted in several areas in the house are "no-smoking" signs, apparently due to the presence of highly flammable chemicals.
Wycoco said Tan is already included in the Bureau of Immigration's watch-list and a hold-departure order would be issued to prevent him from sneaking out of the country.
He added the hold order would come out once the NBI files a case of violation for Section 11 and 12 of Republic Act 9165 against Tan.
Meanwhile, Representative Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo, who arrived to oversee the operation with Pampanga Provincial Police Director Leonardo Espina and City of San Fernando Police Chief Nicanor S. Targa, suggested that government look into the possibility of confiscating and selling the property in favor of the state.
"This is a sign that when government forces work in unison, crime can never prevail, especially in the President's province of Pampanga," Arroyo said.
(February 19, 2005 issue)
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