Philippines seizes 160kg of methamphetamine hidden in biscuit cans, arrests 4 Chinese
- ‘The Chinese will never stop putting up drug laboratories because they can buy anybody’
- The drugs were concealed similarly to seizures in Malaysia, Thailand
Three Chinese nationals and a Chinese-Filipino interpreter were arrested late Tuesday in “buy-bust” raids in an upscale residential enclave and outside a shopping centre in Alabang village in the Manila metropolis, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Aaron Aquino said on Wednesday.
The drugs with a street value of 1.1 billion pesos (US$20.7 million) were concealed similarly to seizures in Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar, indicating an international drug syndicate was behind the trafficking, Aquino said.
Narcos: the hidden drug highways linking Asia and Latin America
Last month, anti-narcotics agents raided a house in Tanza town in Cavite province south of Manila and where they killed two suspected Chinese drug dealers in a gun battle and seized 1.9 billion pesos (US$36 million) worth of methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant locally known as shabu, Aquino said.
Aquino has called for the return of the death penalty in the Philippines for drug traffickers, better security in the archipelago’s extensive coastlines and more extensive databases of foreign drug suspects for the immigration bureau to deter drug trafficking. Corruption also fosters the drug menace, he said.
“There are those who have been detained for drug offences, for example, in China but they could still enter our country. We have arrested many of those identified foreign offenders here,” Aquino said.
“The Chinese will never stop putting up drug laboratories because, firstly, there is no death penalty, and secondly, they can buy anybody,” Aquino said. “They can buy judges, they can buy prosecutors and eventually they can go home safely.”
One more death in Duterte’s war on drugs: trust in Philippine police
Duterte has denied condoning extrajudicial killings but has openly threatened drug traffickers with death. Last week, he drew fresh criticisms when he publicly named 46 government officials, including three congressmen, he alleged were involved in illegal drugs but have not been criminally charged.
Critics have warned him against making such public announcements without solid evidence but Duterte said he trusted the government agencies that provided the information. Several of the politicians he named denied they were involved in the drug trade.
