MANILA (Updated) -- Police arrested four men and seized P1.3 billion pesos ($30 million) worth of methamphetamine, locally known as shabu, on Friday at Marina Bay in Paranaque City.
The men were in a van loaded with six wooden crates containing 272 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine when they were intercepted by police, said Senior Superintendent Bartolome Tobias, head of the Philippine National Police anti-illegal drugs task force.
The arrests followed a tip from an informant.
The arrested men were identified by police as Robert Tan, Oliver Tan, Markjun San Gabriel at Felino Lopez.
Radio report said Tan's group were paid P70,000 to deliver the wooden crates from Sentosa Complex in Parañaque to Cavite. The group denied knowing the content of the crates.
Last week, the National Bureau of Investigation arrested four Canadian men suspected of trafficking drugs from Mexico in separate raids on posh condominiums. Agents recovered 100 million pesos ($2.2 million pesos) worth of cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, which is similar to Ecstasy.
Tobias said police are investigating an "unholy alliance" between Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and Chinese drug syndicates operating in the Philippines.
"We have to move fast to nip this partnership in the bud," he said.
It was not immediately clear if Friday's seizure was related to last week's arrests.
Last year, Philippine authorities seized a record 4.6 billion pesos ($101.5 million) worth of crystal methamphetamine, seven times more than the combined amount over the previous four years, according the Arturo Cacdac, chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Another 5.3 billion pesos ($116.9 million) worth of other drugs and drug-making materials also were seized in 2013. More than 8,600 people, including 73 foreigners, were arrested on suspicion of drug possession and trafficking. (AP/John Carlo Cahinhinan/Sunnex)