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SCMP Reporter

A DRUG trafficker believed to be a Hong Kong triad member who was carrying a massive shipment of the designer drug 'ice' was killed in a shootout with police in the Philippines yesterday.

  Officials said he opened fire from his car with a pistol on officers who had been following the shipment of the drug, believed to have come from China.

  Narcotics command deputy intelligence chief Senior Inspector Mansue Lucban said he and his men returned fire.

  They killed the suspect instantly in the Manila suburb of Paranaque, he said.

  Reports identified the man as Chen Tin-lun, alias Mandy Tan.

  Police confirmed that they recovered the stimulant methampethamine hydrochloride - known in the Philippines as 'shabu' or 'ice' - in several plastic bags.

  They found 140 kilograms of the drug valued at more than 200 million pesos (HK$59.20 million), they said.

  Narcotics Command chief Senior Superintendent Rex Piad said he suspected the shipment came from China.

   The drugs were unloaded from a boat in suburban Navotas town on Manila Bay before dawn, police believe.

   Three suspected accomplices were arrested on Friday at Manila International airport while trying to smuggle drugs from Hong Kong, according to Senator Vicente Sotto, vice-chairman of the Senate committee on illegal drugs.

  Officials did not release their names.

   Chen was the second alleged Hong Kong triad member killed recently by Philippine narcotics police.

  Last year, police gunned down Stanley Tan in the northern province of La Union as he allegedly ran through a checkpoint with 91 kilograms of 'ice' in his car.

  China is believed to be the main source for the 'ice' drug sold in the Philippines.

  Congressman Roilo Golez, an anti-drugs crusader, claimed earlier this month that about 100 billion pesos worth of 'ice' is shipped each year to the Philippines from illegal laboratories in China.

  The boot of Chen's car was opened in the presence of a senator, a congressman, a prosecutor, and local government and police officials from Paranaque to avoid suspicions of a frame-up, police said.

  Police intelligence officials have been accused of planting evidence on Middle Eastern suspects arrested in December on terrorism charges.



Triad member killed in drug shootout