‘Drug queen’ foots jail’s power bill

A 72-YEAR-OLD “drug queen” who was selling shabu from her jail cell in the Correctional Institute for Women was footing the facility’s P1-million monthly power bill, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said Tuesday.

Yuk Lai Sze, 72, got her supply of drugs from her daughter Diane Uy, who bought them from three convicted drug lords detained in the New Bilibid Prison, said PDEA chief Aaron Aquino.

“The drug trade is still booming inside Bilibid,” Aquino said in Filipino in an interview on radio dzMM.

Uy smuggled the drugs into the women’s correctional by delivering them in sacks of rice through the facility’s back door, Aquino said.

At the same time, Uy enjoyed VIP police security before her arrest, the PDEA chief said. He identified the head of Uy’s security detail as PO3 Walter Vidal of the Police Security and Protection Group who was a former Special Action Force commando.

Uy had received a kidnapping threat and was given security but nobody in the PNP had vetted her, Aquino said.

PDEA agents arrested Uy after they found P10 million worth of suspected shabu in her condominium unit near Malacañang Palace on Monday. Hours earlier, agents seized about P5 million worth of drugs from the correctional.

Yuk Lai had previously been in the news when she was caught visiting a casino two years after her conviction.

Aquino said PDEA would file new cases against her.

The agency will also set up a satellite office in Bilibid to curb the drug trade there.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque on Tuesday said no stone would be left unturned in the investigation of a shabu stash found at a condominium unit near Malacañang.

“We recognize that this is alarming that drugs were seized from a house very near Malacañang. And I assure you it will be investigated fully and that the perpetrators will be brought to justice,” he added.

He did not address the continuing drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison or the women’s correctional facility, however.