Chinese charged in Philippines with possession of drugs worth HK$1.2b
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 16 September, 2014, 10:54am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 17 September, 2014, 4:30am
James Griffiths [email protected]
Crystal meth seized in China's Guangdong province in December 2013. The raid in the Philippines marks one of the year's biggest drug busts, according to police. Photo: ImagineChina
Four Chinese nationals have been charged with possession of drugs worth an estimated HK$1.2 billion in the Philippines.
The suspects were arrested during a raid on a warehouse on Friday in the Pampanga provincial capital, San Fernando, north of Manila.
Drug enforcement agency chief Arturo Cacdac Jnr said on Monday that police found around 460kg of crystal methamphetamine, as well as large amounts of hydrochloride and ephedrine used to make the illegal drug.
It was one of the biggest drug busts this year. Cacdac called the seizure, which had been planned for more than six months, a "big blow to syndicates".
The four Chinese suspects, three men and a woman, have been identified by police as Jason Lee, Willy Yap and Near Tan from Xiamen and Ying Huang from Fujian. They underwent questioning accompanied by a state-provided defence lawyer on Monday.
Last month, a court in Manila sentenced three Chinese nationals to life in prison after they were arrested inside a methamphetamine laboratory in 2010.
The methamphetamine trade in the Philippines is believed to have links to Mexican organised crime. In February, a raid on a small operation in Lipa city, south of Manila, swept up three suspected members of the Sinaloa cartel. That raid came after months of speculation that the cartels were moving into the Philippines.
"The Mexicans are already here," drug task force chief Bartolome Tobias said in January, adding that he believed they were getting help from "Chinese drug syndicates".
