THE price of shabu in the Philippines has dropped sharply due to the competition among the Chinese, African and Mexican drug rings, according to an Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Task Force (Aid-STF) officer.
The Chinese drug cartel used to dictate its price, selling as high as P9 million a kilo, or P9, 000 per gram, in recent years, until competition came, Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Inspector Roque Merdegia Jr. said in an exclusive interview on July 29.
Its price, however, dropped by over half its previous rate, Merdegia added.
Citing intelligence reports, Merdegia said a kilo of shabu sells today at P1 million, or P1,000 per gram.
West African drug syndicate’s drugs were first detected by authorities moving around the country in 2010, according to the Aid-STF legal officer.
“It competes with its Chinese counterpart in terms of quality since laboratories had been set up in Africa.”
The smuggled Mexican’s Senaloan shabu, on the other hand, intensified the competition, according to Merdegia.
Its presence in the country was detected by authorities in 2012, competing in price as low as P750,000 a kilo, according to data gathered by the BusinessMirror. In December of 2013, a total of 84 kilos of Senaloan shabu were seized during a raid in Lipa, Batangas.
But, the Chinese drug syndicate smuggles the largest volume of shabu into the country, according to Merdegia.
“Based on intelligence reports, China remains the main producer of shabu in Southeast Asia. The size of smuggled drugs is still bigger than the locally produce since manufacturing it in the Philippines is more expensive.”
Dispatching the raw materials from sources overseas can be costly, aside from being risky of getting caught. Pirating it into the country as finished product does not only give the drug syndicates a chance to generate bigger profits, but also makes it easy to distribute.
However, a number of kitchen-type laboratories in the country still manufactures shabu, Merdiega said, noting that its warehouse counterpart had been decommissioned by operators years ago.
Despite interceptions at air and sea ports, drugs can still penetrate through the porous shorelines in the country. Drug syndicates can transport them in cargo ships “legally from the point of origin.”
They unload the containers in the middle of the sea, according to Merdiega adding that contact fishing vessels come to raise the containers and haul them ashore.
A PNP survey in 2012 showed the number of Filipinos who use illegal drugs was 1.3 million. The number one choice remains shabu, followed by marijuana, and ecstasy. The competition among drug rings threatens to hook more young people to shabu as it becomes affordable, he said.
Meanwhile, the Chinese drug ring is honing individuals from an ethnic group to become producers of drugs in the Philippines, Merdiega added.
1 comment
yehey! magandang balita!!