4 Chinese nationals slapped with drug raps

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed drug charges against four Chinese nationals arrested in two separate raids in Pampanga last month that yielded P7 billion worth of shabu.

Charged before the Pampanga court are Jayson Lee, Willt Yao a.k.a. “Jun Lee,” and Near Tan a.k.a. “Tsoi” who are all from Xiamen and Yingying Huang a.k.a. Sophia from Fujian.

They have been charged with violation of Sections 8 (Manufacture of Dangerous Drugs and/or Controlled Precursors and Essential Chemicals) and 11 (Possession of Dangerous Drugs) of the Article II of RA No. 9165. Yingying was charged for violation of Section 11 only because she was arrested in her house, not in the alleged shabu laboratory where the other accused were arrested.

“Positive declarations prevail over bare denial… [t]he evidence submitted sufficiently shows that upon the implementation of the search warrants, dangerous drugs were found in the place subject of the search warrant,” stated the 14-page resolution, a copy of which was released to the media Monday. The resolution was prepared by Assistant State Prosecutor Michael Vito Cruz and approved by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Lilian Doris Alejo and Prosecutor General Claro Arellano.

The twin raid in Richtown and Greenville subdivisions were conducted last September 12 by a composite team from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Philippine National Police-Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (PNP-AIDSOTF).

The operation yielded the biggest drug seizure in the Philippines, with operatives seizing 185 kilos of shabu from the Greenville raid, and 276 kilos from the Richtown raid. The confiscated illegal drugs were subjected to confirmatory laboratory examination.

The DOJ said that “[t]he presence of shabu precursors Dimethyl and Phenylaziridine (Aziridine) in the clandestine laboratory is a prima facie proof of manufacture of dangerous drugs.”

“It is clear that respondents Jayson Lee, Near Tan, and Jun Lee acted in conspiracy with one another, and each one of them performed overt acts in furtherance of their ultimate goal which is the operation of a clandestine laboratory, manufacturing dangerous drugs,” the resolution read.

In the case of Huang, the DOJ said that the shabu seized from her “clearly shows that the respondent is engaged in the illicit [illegal drug] trade.”

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