THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has dismantled the first laboratory in the country producing the party drug Ecstasy in Malabon City after an operation to execute a search warrant on Friday morning.
Authorities arrested Chinese national Jiang Minshan, 53, and his Filipino driver Lauro Santiago, 59, during the operation.
“This is the first time in the country’s drug law enforcement history that a clandestine Ecstasy laboratory was closed down,” PDEA director general Aaron Aquino said.
At about 7 a.m., PDEA operatives, along with Philippine Army intelligence and local police, raided a three-story house on Dela Cruz Street, Barangay Tinajeros, Malabon.
Authorities were able to confiscate large amounts of controlled precursors and essential chemicals used in the production of Ecstasy, various laboratory equipment and apparatus, and tablets of the drug.
“The operation is linked to the recently dismantled clandestine shabu laboratory inside Hingoso Farm, Barangay Sto. Niño, Ibaan, Batangas [discovered on Thursday],” Aquino said.
Jiang and the four arrested Chinese chemists in Batangas and Cavite’s Tagaytay City were members of the Dragon Wu international drug syndicate operating in Asia, the PDEA chief said.
According to Aquino, the group is connected to the infamous “Golden Triangle” known as the world’s foremost drug-producing region operating near the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.
He said there is a big possibility the illegal facility in Malabon was also used as a testing site to experiment on new kinds of amphetamine-type stimulants.
Residents of the area were surprised the drug lab was so close to their barangay hall. However, they noticed the building was always closed, with its garage gates only opening at dawn for vehicles to come in and out.
Malabon Mayor Lenlen Oreta could not be reached for comment on the drug bust.
The discovery of the illegal drug labs in Batangas and Malabon was the result of the intelligence support provided by the Office of the National Narcotics Control Commission and the Narcotics Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, People’s Republic of China, to the PDEA.
“A tip-off from ONNCC was first relayed to PDEA International Cooperation and Foreign Affairs Service that Chinese chemists are flying in and out of the country. The arrested suspects were under surveillance for seven months prior to the operations,” the PDEA chief.
According to Chinese intelligence reports, the shabu and ecstasy-producing laboratories were established by a Hong Kong-based drug kingpin and financier, who remains unnamed.