The Philippine National Police (PNP) will run after the cohorts of the foreign drug traffickers who died in Zambales and the three others who were arrested in Bataan in order to put a lid on their illegal operations in the country.
PNP chief General Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar also ordered police units to assist the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in the conduct of intelligence gathering against the remnants of the group of Xu Youhua, who was among those who died in the operation in Candelaria, Zambales, on Tuesday.
Eleazar said Xu was one of the biggest shabu importers in the Philippines and was a member of a transnational drug trafficking organization.
Xu and three other Chinese died after they shot it out with law enforcers where some 500 kilos of shabu worth P4.3 billion was seized. The haul was the biggest so far for this year for the government.
Aside from Xu, those who died during the shootout were Gao Manzhu, 49; Hong Jianshe, 58 and Eddie Tan, 60, all from Fujian, China.
Eleazar said Xu and his group were known distributors of illegal drugs in Luzon, particularly in Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Region 4.
A few hours after the operation, three other Chinese were also arrested in Barangay Tipo, Hermosa, Bataan in a hot pursuit operation where at least 80 kilos more of shabu worth at least P544 million was seized.
“There were some personalities who were monitored leaving the area of operation in Candelaria and the operating teams responded quickly to intercept the fleeing suspects who were among the subjects of the operation,” Eleazar said.
Arrested in the operation were Qing Chang Zhou, 37, who uses the Filipino name Ricky Chou; Cai Cai Bin, 49, with Filipino name James/Joseph Chua and Longcai Chang, 45. All of them are natives of Fujian, China and residents of Binondo, Manila.
The operation was a result of the cooperation and information sharing of the PNP, the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, Bureau of Customs and PDEA.
Eleazar also ordered local police forces and the PNP Maritime Group to strengthen the security measures in coastal areas to prevent the entry of illegal drugs.