Police arrest 5 Taiwanese for drugs

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine police arrested five Taiwanese men in a Manila suburb for allegedly manufacturing illegal drugs, an anti-narcotics official said on Monday.

They raided a rented house on Sunday where the five were allegedly manufacturing the banned drug methamphetamine hydrochloride, popularly known as “shabu” or “ice”, said Chief Inspector Roque Merdegia.

He said police had been tracking an alleged Taiwan drug syndicate operating in this country since last year but only pinpointed the drug laboratory after being tipped off earlier this month.

“We received information coming from concerned citizens… reporting the presence of suspicious persons and of the foul odour coming from the garden of that house,” said Merdegia, chief legal officer of an anti-drugs taskforce.

Police found banned substances including an amount of the drugs that were still being processed, he told AFP.

The five will face charges of manufacturing illegal drugs and could face life imprisonment, he added.

He named the five as Tsai Horng, Yu Kun Lin, Huang Yung Chun, Cheng Yu Teng and one man identified only as Hsu.

The suspects had entered the country separately over two years and the police are checking their passports to see if the information inside is accurate, Merdegia said.