MANILA: Police recovered 408 million pesos (RM32.7m) worth of syabu or methamphetamine in a buy-bust operation in San Fernando city, Pampanga following the arrest of a suspect.
The arrest of the suspect, who was not identified, was revealed by Interior and Local Government secretary, Benhur Abalos, on Thursday, the Philippine News Agency reported.
Abalos was in San Fernando city with Philippine National Police (PNP) officer-in-charge, Lieutenant General Vicente Danao, after the operation by the PNP-Drug Enforcement Group.
Both Abalos and Danao declined to furnish further details on the identity of the suspect, pending deeper investigations into the case.
"It is more of a buy-bust," Danao said and noted most of the large-scale illegal drug activities usually occur in Central Luzon and Calabarzon due to the presence of a large number of end users densely populated regions.
In the operation, PNP-DEG operatives found 60 teabags of suspected syabu inside a white van. Each teabag, which has Chinese characters, contained a kilogram of the crystal like substance.
Abalos advised the public to report to authorities any suspicious individuals, places or activities that might be related to the production, storage or trade of illegal drugs.