ANTI-NARCOTICS operatives discovered on Thursday, August 9, four other magnetic lifters that may have contained a ton of illegal drugs worth P6.8 billion in General Mariano Alvarez town in Cavite.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) director Aaron Aquino said the illegal substance may have already been distributed because the lifters were already empty when discovered by joint police and PDEA operatives in a warehouse in Unit 4, Lot 1-18, CRS Subdivision in Barangay F. Reyes.
Aquino said that based on the demeanor of the K9 units that inspected the magnetic lifters, these had contained illegal drugs.
He said the four magnetic lifters were similar to those intercepted at the Manila International Container Terminal on Tuesday, August 7, which contained methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) worth P4.3 billion (not P3.4 billion as police earlier estimated).
“Last August 7, during a press conference at MICT after PDEA, PNP, and Bureau of Customs intercepted a container with more or less 500 kilos of shabu, I mentioned that I have a gut feeling that four or five similar containers have slipped into our streets,” he said.
“True enough...we were able to locate four magnetic lifters,” he added.
Aquino said that based on several documents, including shipment and bank records found in the warehouse, the magnetic lifters all came from Taiwan.
Aquino said closed-circuit television footages were also recovered during the raid.
All the recovered evidence are significant to the conduct of investigation.
However, Aquino said they are already considering 19 persons, including Filipinos, Chinese and Malaysians, as persons of interest.
He identified one, Chao Yue Wah, who is also known as KC Chan, or Tony Chan or Albert Chan.
He reportedly serves as the liaison officer of the Golden Triangle international, a drug syndicate operating in Southeast Asia who might have been responsible for sending the illegal drugs in magnetic lifters.
“This is very sad - P6.8 billion worth of illegal drugs are now circulating anew in our streets,” said Aquino.
He said the PDEA was in close coordination with their counterparts in Malaysia, China and the United States Drug Enforcement Agency for other possible information related to the ongoing investigation.
Aquino said once they have solid evidence against the persons of interest, they will file charges before the court for the issuance of arrest warrants against them. (SunStar Philippines)