Businessman Kenneth Dong, who is accused of illegal drug importation related to the P6.4-billion shabu shipment smuggled from China that slipped through Customs in 2017, has been arrested.
Deputy director Ferdinand Lavin of the National Bureau of Investigation confirmed Monday that agents of their Anti-Organized and Transnational Crime Division have detained Dong, but did not provide details.
Dong was ordered arrested last year along with Customs broker Mark Ruben Taguba II and seven other accused. The case is pending before Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46.
This developed as the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said Monday the P1.9 billion worth of shabu seized in a warehouse in Tanza, Cavite on Sunday could have entered the country through “shipside smuggling.”
Director general Aaron Aquino said the confiscated drugs were believed to have come from Southeast Asia, adding the packages containing the illegal drugs could have been dropped from large ships and then picked up by smaller vessels.
PDEA agents killed two Chinese nationals in a drug raid Sunday afternoon and seized 274 kilos of suspected shabu worth P1.9 billion.
Three months after the massive drug shipment was discovered in Valenzuela City, Dong was arrested in August 2017 for allegedly raping a businesswoman the year before.
He was released from detention in November 2017 after the complainant did not pursue charges, leading a Parañaque judge to dismiss the case.
Meanwhile, Aquino said the drugs in Cavite came from the Golden Triangle syndicate in the borders of Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar.
“We suspect these drugs were being manufactured in Region 1 and were being transported to Cavite. From Cavite, the proximity of it to Metro Manila is just near… that could easily be distributed,” Aquino said.
“They [Chinese] bring in drugs from Mindanao. You see, that’s why drugs in Mindanao are that cheap since they use the Sulu Sea (entry point],” Aquino said.
“The drugs come either from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, and also a group of the Golden Triangle. These drugs were being brought in to Zamboanga. From Zamboanga, these were being distributed in Cagayan de Oro, Cebu and all the other parts of the Visayas and Mindanao. Some of these drugs are brought to Metro Manila.”
Aquino said the drug syndicate involved in the Cavite warehouse could be connected to the group behind the shabu laboratory in Ibaan, Batangas, where four Chinese nationals were arrested.