RTC Judge Omar Viola ordered the suspects transferred from the police custodian center here to the Angeles City district jail within the compound of the city police headquarters at Camp Tomas Pepito in Barangay Sto. Domingo.
Central Luzon police director Chief Supt. Leon Nilo dela Cruz identified the suspects as Yang Hong Liang, 28; Yang Liang Zao, 39; Yang Pei Zi, 34; Lin Asi, 30 and Cang Chunri, 34, all natives of Fujian, China.
They were arrested during simultaneous raids on two houses at 28-9 Sandico St., Diamond Subdivision in Barangay Balibago and 20-11 Ohio St. at Villasol subdivision in Barangay Anunas here last December. The raiders consisted of policemen from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA); the police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AID-SOTF) and the police regional headquarters at Cam Olivas.
The raids, which were supported by court orders, yielded chemicals used in making methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu” and finished products were seized.
Senior Inspector Roque Merdegia Jr, chief of the Legal and Investigation Division of AID-SOTF based at Camp Crame, said that the Angeles city prosecutor’s office had earlier recommended the filling of information against the suspects for violation of Sections 8, 11 and 12 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. They were not entitled to bail.
The police teams later reported seizing during the raids “a big volume of shabu, precursor chemicals and laboratory equipment with an estimated street value of about P50 million”.
De la Cruz said that the five Chinese suspects are believed to be “connected with the drug traffickers and manufacturers previously arrested by AID SOTF and PDEA in clandestine illegal drug laboratories in Metro Manila and Southern Luzon”.
