POLICE SEIZE YEAR'S BIGGEST DRUG HAUL

ANTI-narcotics agents scored this year's biggest drug haul when they seized
some 151 kilos of shabu worth P302 million from three suspected Taiwanese
drug traffickers in a series of operations which started Thursday and ended
yesterday afternoon inside Multinational Village in Paranaque City.

Deputy Director General Jewel Canson, executive director of the National
Law Enforcement and Prevention Coordinating Council (DEP CENTER)),
identified the arrested suspects as Chan Shin Lu, 44, alias Robert Chang
and his associates Peter Chua, alias Peter Choi and Chen Chie Xiao.

Canson said the three were connected with the Chinese drug triad based in
Hong Kong and Mainland China.

The two-day anti-drug operations were jointly conducted by agents from the
DEP CENTER, Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), and
PNP-Narcotics Group (NarcGroup).

First to fall were Chua and Xiao. Both were said to have been intercepted
by the anti-narcotics agents near the Luneta Grandstand.

Chua and Xiao yielded 20 kilograms of shabu.

Follow-up operations were immediately set up, with the agents waiting for
several hours -- the whole night till dawn -- for Lu, said to be the leader
of the group.

Police had learned that Lu would be returning to their rented house at No.
60 Matthew St., Multinational Village, Paranaque.

Lu finally arrived at about 2:30 p.m. yesterday.

Narcs immediately jumped on him and served the search warrant issued by a
Paranaque City regional trial court judge.

The raiders discovered the 131 kilos of shabu in black bags hidden inside
luggage and a box.

Police intelligence reports showed that the arrested suspects arrived in
the country two weeks ago carrying the illegal drugs.

They were said to have been operating in the country for nearly two years
using daily ''friendly mahjong games'' as their cover.

Canson said the seized illegal drugs were 90 percent pure and will increase
in quantity if reprocessed for selling in the street.

The evidence was turned over to the PNP Crime Laboratory in Camp Crame for
further examination while the three arrested suspects were ordered detained
at the PNP Narcotics detention cell.

Early this year, Canson's men also intercepted 125 kilos of high grade
shabu and arrested three Taiwanese drug traffickers in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur.

PNP chief Director General Panfilo Lacson, who also presented the suspects
to the media later in the afternoon, said the seizure of the 151 kilos of
shabu was a major setback to the illegal drugs operations in the country.

''This is in compliance with President Estrada's directive of an all-out
war against illegal drug trafficking since kidnapping is down,'' Lacson said.