Suspected Chinese drug trafficker arrested in Philippines with US$50 million of meth concealed in tea packets
- Police said they had been monitoring Liu Chao for two weeks and he tried to escape after sensing he was making a deal with an undercover officer
- Philippine officials say the tea wrappers used to conceal the drugs are similar to ones found in seizures in Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar
More than 370kg of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of more than 2.5 billion pesos (US$49 million) was discovered in the suburban Makati city flat of Liu Chao after he was arrested, police said.
Two Filipinos who allegedly worked as Liu’s drug dealers were arrested on Tuesday night with 17kg more of methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant, in a separate police raid in Las Pinas city in the Manila metropolis, national police spokesman Bernard Banac said.
Police said they have been monitoring Liu for two weeks and he tried to escape on Tuesday night after sensing that he was making a deal with a police officer pretending to be a drug buyer. He was caught and police later found the methamphetamine concealed in Chinese tea packs in his flat, police officer in charge Lieutenant General Archie Francisco Gamboa told reporters.
Investigators were trying to determine where the drugs, locally called “shabu”, came from.
The killings have alarmed Western governments, UN human rights experts and rights groups and sparked two complaints of crimes against humanity which are being examined by the International Criminal Court.