Philippine police arrested four men and seized USD 30 million worth of methamphetamine today in the second large drug bust in Manila in 10 days.
The men were in a van loaded with six wooden crates containing 272 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine when they were intercepted by police, said Senior Superintendent Bartolome Tobias, head of the Philippine National Police anti-illegal drugs task force. The arrests followed a tip from an informant.
"Each gram of drug the police are able to remove from our communities is already something because we are able to reduce the amount of drugs poisoning our people," said Arturo Cacdac, chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
He said one of the four suspects was a bulk supplier of drugs for street dealers and had been under surveillance for two months. The man, however, denied knowing the crates contained drugs and said he was paid USD 1,530 to bring the boxes to nearby Cavite province.
Last week, the National Bureau of Investigation arrested four Canadian men suspected of trafficking drugs from Mexico in separate raids on posh condominiums. Agents recovered USD 2.2 million worth of cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, which is similar to Ecstasy.
Tobias said police are investigating an "unholy alliance" between Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and Chinese drug syndicates operating in the Philippines.
"We have to move fast to nip this partnership in the bud," he said.
It was not immediately clear if today's seizure was related to last week's arrests.
Last year, Philippine authorities seized a record USD 101.5 million worth of crystal methamphetamine, seven times more than the combined amount over the previous four years, according Cacdac.
Another USD 116.9 million worth of other drugs and drug-making materials also were seized in 2013. More than 8,600 people, including 73 foreigners, were arrested on suspicion of drug possession and trafficking.
