MANHUNT ON FOR CHINESE DRUG FIENDS

Police have launched a massive hunt for two Chinese linked to the two
suspected shabu warehouses which authorities smashed in Metro Manila
last week.

This developed as Deputy Director General Edgar B. Aglipay, head of
the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force and PNP
deputy chief for administration, urged the public to help them catch
suspected shabu chemists or helpers in their community.

Aglipay said that shabu chemists or laboratory helpers are usually
foreign nationals, mostly Chinese with acid burns or discoloration on
their arms; do not mingle with local residents; display paranoid
tendencies; suffer from diseases afflicting internal organs
particularly the liver and kidney; with no visible means of income;
and cannot speak Tagalog or any dialect.

"We're informing the public on the profiles of a shabu chemist or lab
helper so they can help us identify and arrest these evils," said Aglipay.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chair Undersecretary Anselmo S. Avenido
Jr. said the public could avail of their "Operation: Private Eye" which is a
citizen-based information collection project that gives rewards to civilian
informants who report positive intelligence information on illegal drug
activities, particularly the existence of shabu laboratories and drug
traffickers.

Aglipay was commended yesterday by President Macapagal-Arroyo and
Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo T.
Reyes for successfully neutralizing another shabu warehouse at the
corner of Yakal and Tanguili streets in Villa Liwayway Subdivision,
Barangay Maysan, Valenzuela City.

Toxic smoke emitting from chemicals stored in the place prompted local
residents to call the attention of the authorities.

Northern Police District director Chief Supt. Marcelino F. Franco said
that a fire alarm sent firemen to 44 18th Street, Villa Liwayway
Subdivision at 2:15 p.m. last Thursday.

However, responding firemen discovered a big volume of chemicals at
the one-story warehouse owned by one Roger Ang, 52. The warehouse was
leased to one Jimmy Coo Huo, the owner of the chemicals.

Ang and Huo are now the object of a massive police
manhunt.

Franco said they later found out that local residents complained of
foul toxic odor coming from white smoke being emitted by the chemicals
due to chemical reaction.

Aglipay said that AID-SOTF elements led by Senior Supt. Federico E.
Laciste Jr. and Supt. Nelson T. Yabut, members of the Valenzuela
police led by Chief Insp.

Efren L. Yadao and the Crime Laboratory Group led by Insp. Valiente G.
Tebia raided the place on the strength of a search warrant issued by
Judge Floro P. Alejo of the Valenzuela City Regional Trial Court Branch 172.

The raid resulted in the recovery of 177 drums containing shabu
precursors.

GOOD JOB. President Macapagal-Arroyo visited yesterday the shabu laboratory
which was discovered last week by agents of the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs
Special Operations Task Force on Tanguili Street, Villa Liwayway Subd.,
Valenzuela City where several drums of shabu precursors and other equipment
were seized. Photo: Bobot Manzano