Olongapo City—Joint elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit 3 raided a clandestine shabu laboratory at a residential area in Kalayaan Village, Subic Freeport on Friday.
PDEA3 director Christian Frivaldo said five persons were arrested — four policemen assigned to the Olongapo City Police Office (OCPO) and a civilian caretaker of the villa where the “kitchen-type” laboratory of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu is located.
The raiding team seized more than a kilo of shabu with an estimated street value of P6.8 million and undetermined volume of shabu precursors.
PDEA declined to identify the suspects pending result of investigation.
He said the Philippine National Police (PNP) had been informed of the arrest of policemen, who were all assigned to the OCPO Station 2. They were placed under PDEA custody for further investigation.
“The policemen presence inside the target villa is suspicious, that is why we must take them in for investigation,” said Frivaldo.
Target of the operations, Frivaldo said, was a foreigner who had been frequenting the house in the past few days and was believed to be the shabu chemist.
“Except for the caretaker and the four policemen, no other persons were present when the raiding team barged inside the villa,” said Frivaldo, adding that pursuit operations were launched against the fleeing suspect, whom the operatives lost track of.
Colonel Benjamin Daro, regional chief of the (3CIDU) stationed at Camp Olivas, said the laboratory can produce three to four kilos of shabu per day.
PDEA will be filing criminal offense against the four policemen aside from the administrative charges being prepared by the Regional Internal Affairs Service (RIAS).