AGENTS of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Friday evening smashed a kitchen-type shabu laboratory in Caloocan City, the 1st to be detected in Metro Manila in recent years, PDEA chair Director General Wilkins M. Villanueva said yesterday.

The “mini-shabu” production facility located along C3 corner A. Mabini Street in Barangay 23, Caloocan City was discovered by intelligence operatives of the PDEA National Capital Region Office (PDEA-NCR) following tips from informants.

The PDEA is still investigating how long the raided site has been operating particularly right under the noses of local police authorities before its discovery.

Past 6:00 p.m. Friday, PDEA-NCR officers, with the assistance of elements from the Bureau of Customs Investigation and Intelligence Service and the Caloocan City Police Station raided the facility where they recovered a huge volume of controlled precursors and essential chemicals or CPECs being used to manufacture the so-called “poor man’s cocaine”.

The seized pieces of evidence include 41 metal and plastic containers full of a white liquid substance believed to be methamphetamine, a weighing scale, aluminum trays, a vacuum pump, 1 sealer machine refrigerator, assorted CPECs (Controlled Precursors and Essential Chemicals), various laboratory equipment, and documents which are now being subjected to a financial investigation.

There were no reported arrests during the raid, however.

PDEA investigators will be filing charges for violation of Section 8 or Manufacture of Dangerous Drugs and/or CPECs of Republic Act 9165, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 against the maintainers of the raided facility.

PDEA records showed that from July 1, 2016 to January 31 this year, a total of 18 clandestine drug laboratories and 1,008 shabu dens have been smashed by the PDEA and the PNP.

In many cases, however, no arrests were made as the raided drug facilities turned out to have been abandoned already.

On September 22, 2016, PNP and PDEA officers dismantled what they said then was the biggest shabu laboratory discovered in the country, the drug facility located at the foot of Mount Arayat in Bgy. Lacquios in Pampanga.

Found inside the raided site were 7 large hydrogenators and a chromatograph machine which reportedly can be used to produce around 100 kilograms of shabu daily.

On May 30, 2017, PDEA and Quezon City Police District (QCPD) agents raided an abandoned shabu production facility in Baesa, Quezon City (Q.C.) where they found chemicals and lab equipment. A Chinese national named Kwok Kuen Yu was charged in court in connection with the raid which resulted in the confiscation of a huge quantity of white powdery and crystalline substances believed to be shabu and CPECs and lab equipment.

However, on April 12, 2018, PDEA and PNP agents arrested a group of Chinese and Filipino nationals accused of running a clandestine shabu laboratory in Bgy. Sto. Niño in Ibaan, Batangas which reportedly could produce an average of 25 kilos of shabu worth P125 million daily.

2 Chinese chemists identified as Tian Baoquan and Guo Zixing and another compatriot named Xie Jiansheng were among those arrested during the anti-narcotics operation.

On December 6, 2018, PNP operatives seized around P204 million worth of CPECs and equipment being used to produce shabu inside a house in North Greenhills in San Juan City. No arrest was made during the raid but one Philip Jacob Nocum was identified as the man renting the raided drug facility.

On December 6, 2019, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said it raided a condominium unit in Q.C. where they discovered a makeshift shabu facility.

On January 9, 2021, police seized some P10.2 million worth of illegal drugs inside a medium-scale shabu lab in Cainta, Rizal.