Narconomics

Malou Apalisok

One of the most shocking reports that came out as the trauma of supertyphoon Yolanda slowly receded in the background and 2013 faded away was the Christmas Day raid of a huge shabu manufacturing facility in Lipa City, Batangas by joint elements of the Philippine National Police-Anti Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency PNP-AIDSOTF.

Some 84 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride, also known as shabu, valued at P420 million were seized in a house quietly and discreetly nestled in a ranch at the LPL Estate, owned by the Levistes of Batangas. The prominent clan is led by former Batangas governor and paroled convicted killer Antonio “Tony” Leviste and his twin brother Conrad, father of incumbent Vice Gov. Mark Leviste. They vast estate is home to gamecock breeders and, until the Christmas Day raid was known as an idyllic farmstead.

Police operatives busting drug dens operating either in the center of a highly urbanized city, like the Mandaue City mega-shabu laboratory raided by Manila-based police operatives in September 2004, or in an exclusive enclave like Ayala Alabang in Muntinlupa City in January 2012, and in the ebbing days of 2013, the raid in the Leviste-owned ranch, always land in front pages because of the sheer magnitude of the operations, the unobtrusiveness of the illegal activity and the involvement of Chinese nationals.

Sadly, despite the implied significance of such incidents, which point to the unabated manufacture and traffic of illegal drugs by foreigners in the middle of bustling communities where police presence is supposedly conspicuous, a suggestion of corruption in high places, or in exclusive and heavily guarded communities, government authorities have miserably failed to eradicate, let alone moderate the scourge of illegal drugs.

The raid of the mega-shabu laboratory in Mandaue City 10 years ago yielded 675 kilos of shabu worth P1.3 billion. The police operation led to the arrest and prosecution of 11 Chinese nationals including lab financier Calvin de Jesus Tan. It was the testimony of British national Simon Lao, Tan’s main man in the shabu lab, which nailed Tan and 10 of his cohorts who were meted the maximum penalty of life imprisonment by Regional Trial Court Judge Marilyn Lagura Yap.

Police raids conducted in three residential houses in the posh Ayala Alabang two years ago also led to the arrest of a number of Chinese nationals and the seizure of illegal drugs worth millions of pesos. The Madrigals who own the elite subdivision denied any involvement but I’m sure the residents who think the exclusivity of their village shields them from the company of drug dealers received a rude wake-up call.

Now comes the report that the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel has broken ground in the Philippines through a certain Jorge Gomez Torres, a Filipino American who partnered with Chinese Filipino Gary Tan and two other local contacts in Batangas in manufacturing and distributing drugs.

Sinaloa is generally known in Mexico as the Cartel of the Pacific. According to the Mexican Gulf Reporter (Philippines on the alert for presence of Sinaloa Cartel, Dec. 27, 2013) the cartel is controlled by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who controls 90-percent of the US drug market.

The disclosure made by the PNP echelon is very alarming. It implies the Chinese mafia has set up drug factories in the Philippines and partnered with Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel in the distribution and sale of narcotics. Mexican drug cartels are known to kill and maim people who stand in the way of narconomics or those who cut their profits.

Alberto Islas, a security consultant in Mexico City told the Wall Street Journal (Dec. 27, 2013) the discovery of the drug den in Batangas suggests the Mexican cartel is expanding its market in Asia with methamphetamines because it is cheap and very lucrative. Islas said, “the cartel’s method of operation was similar to a legitimate international retailer entering a new market: it brought the product, expertise in distribution and financing, but needed to ally itself with local dealers who could sell it.”

I hope this dreadful information sinks into the minds of law enforcers because the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel is the most wanted drug trafficker in the world and sits on top of narconomics.

On the other hand, the public needs to be vigilant because law enforcement can only succeed with the support of the people.

By the way, former governor Antonio Leviste has denied owning the ranch which he referred to in a statement as the “Tan-Torres” farm.

If the Levistes have nothing to do with the shabu facility, they should present the lease contract entered into by Tan-Torres minus any compulsion from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The document will enhance the investigation and will save the DOJ precious time in asking the court to issue a subpoena, which, in layman’s term, is the legal mode of discovering who is responsible for leasing out the farmstead to the Chinese mafia and the Mexican drug cartel.