Drug lords import high-grade ‘shabu’ for rich users

This photo from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency shows the consignee-suspect identified as Joel Reyes (a.k.a Kyle Puna Sanchez), 42, and the confiscated crystal meth (locall known as “shabu”) worth P12,240,000.00 that was imported from San Jose City in California, United States. Authorities intercepted the illegal drug at the Port of Clark on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. Then, in a controlled delivery operation, recovered the contraband from the suspect in Barangay Highway Hills, Mandaluyong City on May 11.

While crystal meth, popularly known as “shabu,” remains among the illegal drugs of choice, especially among the poor, some drug personalities are importing a “high-grade” variant of the so-called poor man’s cocaine for use by more affluent Filipinos.

In a report on Friday, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said its agents seized 1,808 grams of imported shabu worth P12.24 million in a controlled delivery operation in Mandaluyong City on Thursday afternoon.

Authorities arrested the consignee of the parcel identified as Joel Mariano Reyes, 42, who used the fictitious identity of Kyle Puna Sanchez, of Sultan Street, Barangay Highway Hills, where he resides.

The box containing the imported shabu—concealed inside two cans of coffee beans, along with candies, a plushie and toy rice cooker set—originated from San Jose, California, and arrived at the Port of Clark on May 9.

The drug shipment was intercepted after the PDEA International Cooperation and Foreign Affairs Service was tipped off earlier this month by its foreign counterparts that a parcel from the United States containing shabu will arrive in Clark.

According to PDEA Central Luzon public information officer Glenn Guillermo, there has been a recent trend of an increase in the volume of imported shabu intercepted at the Port of Clark.

Compared to its local variety, high-grade shabu has less impurities and is a more pure form of methamphetamine hydrochloride, the highly addictive and stimulating chemical of the illegal drugs.

“It’s more pure, mas malakas ang tama, and thus has a more powerful stimulating effect to the body of its user,” Guillermo told the Inquirer on Friday.

“High-grade shabu’s effects also last longer. Based on our chemists’ findings on samples from arrested suspects, imported shabu could even be detected in the body for three to four days, while those shabu sold in our streets could only last for two days at most,” he added.

Because of these, drug traders and distributors are selling imported shabu significantly higher than the P6,900 a gram estimated street value of local shabu.

“They are clearly not meant to be sold to our street drug users, who could not afford them, but intended for the richer clientele,” Guillermo said.

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