2 Chinese chemists linked to Masbate shabu labs busted in Manila raid

Update

DRUG operatives arrested over the weekend alleged Chinese drug manufacturers linked to the recently raided drug laboratories purportedly owned by former Masbate mayors and a drug peddler in a same-day operation in Manila, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said on Tuesday.

PDEA agents and members of the Philippine National Police arrested two Chinese nationals and a Tondo resident in separate operations in Malate Saturday, April 11, yielding packs of shabu, or metamphetamine hydrochloride, with estimated market value of P15 million.

Alleged chemists of a clandestine drug laboratory Dominador Enresmo, alias “Antonio Lee,” 58 years old, a native of Guandong, China, and Sung Wai Bing, alias “Alex Ty Antes,” a native of Hong Kong,  were caught in an entrapment operation at El Soriente Hotel on Saturday noon, PDEA Director General Undersecretary Arturo G. Cacdac, Jr. said in a statement.

Cacdac said Enresmo and Bing were targeted drug personalities included in Operation Plan: “Bismuth Crystal.”

Around 12:10 noon, PDEA agents and police raided Room 409 of the El Soriente Hotel located at the corner of Bocobo and Flores streets in Barangay (village) 670.

They confiscated from Enresmo and Bing two zip-lock plastic bags containing white crystalline substance believed to be shabu, weighing more or less two kilograms, cash amounting to P1,300, assorted documents, and the boodle money amounting to P800,000 with two pieces of P1,000 marked bills dusted with ultra violet powder.

“Enresmo and Bing were chemists of a suspected shabu laboratory that was dismantled by joint PDEA-PNP operatives during a Valentine’s Day raid in Masbate province,” Cacdac said.

Chief Inspector Roque Merdegia Jr., PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force, said operatives swooped down on two drug laboratories in Masbate City on February 14. Three Masbate locals were arrested in the raid on the drug facilities located at the compounds believed to be owned by former mayors of Milagros and San Fernando towns.

Hours after the Malate hotel operation, authorities collared 35-year-old Sherwin de Ocampo after selling more or less one kilogram of shabu worth P5 million to an undercover agent in a buy-bust operation.

Around 6:45 p.m., De Ocampo was arrested after receiving the marked money from the agent on the corner of Arellano and Zapanta Streets in Barangay 754, Singalong, also in Malate, Manila.

Ocampo’s cohort Oscar Clemente, alias “Oka,” however, managed to elude arrest.

Ocampo is currently detained at PDEA jail facility in Camp Vicente Lim, Calamba, Laguna, while a case for violation of Section 5, or the sale of dangerous drugs, under Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, is being prepared for filing before the Office of the Manila City Prosecutor against him.

Meanwhile, the arrested Chinese nationals will be charged with violating Section 5, or sale of dangerous drugs, in relation to Section 26, or conspiracy to sell, and Section 11, or possession of dangerous drugs, under article II of RA 9165.