DRUGS

ILOILO CITY Police arrested on Monday, 25 Taiwanese and Chinese

nationals on Boracay
Island in Aklan province on suspicion that they were involved in illegal drugs
and cybercrime operations.
Senior Insp. Jess Baylon, chief of the Boracay Tourist Assistance Center, the
islands police force, said the two-story rented house where the suspects
were staying served as a distribution point for various types of illegal drugs
and the base of operations of a cybercrime group.
At least 20 operatives from various police units conducted the bust against
Lin Szu in Sitio (sub-village) Bulabog in Barangay (village) Balabag at 7 a.m.
They arrested Lin after he sold a sachet of suspected shabu
(methamphetamine hydrochloride) to undercover agents.
Policemen subsequently discovered several telephones and laptop
computers in the suspects rented house, Baylon said.
He said the computers, routers and other electronic equipment were placed
in at least 10 cubicles in the houses ground floor.
Suspected drugs that included pills, serums and syringes were found in four
rooms on the second floor.
Those arrested included seven Chinese and 18 Taiwanese. Seven of them are
women.
Police had yet to release the names of the other suspects.
Also recovered from the house were lists of contact numbers believed to be
targets of cybercrime operations in China and other countries.
The suspects, police said, could be part of a group victimizing foreigners,
most of them their fellow Chinese and Taiwanese, through fraudulent online
transactions and extortion.
Baylon said the house was placed under surveillance after policemen
monitored boxes of equipment being brought into the house.
The tenants also roused suspicion because they rarely went out, police said.
Baylon said a Taiwanese couple rented the house for P120,000 a month.
However, they were not in the house during the police operation.
The suspects were still at the house as of 5:15 p.m. while operatives were
conducting an inventory of the recovered items.