By HENRY EMPEÑO | Updated June 21, 2025

MASINLOC, Zambales — Authorities have apprehended about 1.5 tons of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu” at the West Philippine Sea (WPS) off Zambales province early Friday, marking the biggest haul so far since bales of the illegal drug were found adrift off Western and Northern Luzon late last month.

The Philippine Navy through its Northern Luzon Naval Command, along with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), reportedly intercepted the drug shipment from a fishing boat off the Zambales coast at 1:30 a.m. on Friday, June 20.

Navy spokesman Capt. John Percie Alcos said the vessel carrying the suspected shabu is a Philippine-registered fishing boat with Filipino crew and one foreign national on board. Authorities did not find any weapon aboard the fishing vessel, which did not try to flee upon confrontation.

Initial reports from the Philippine Navy placed the latest shabu haul at P10 billion.

The confiscated narcotics were sent to the Naval Operating Base (NOB) Subic for inventory and proper turnover.

Following the operation, the Philippine Navy posted photos of the fishing vessel with its identification marks on the hull blurred, as well as the seized drugs that were laid down at the NOB yard.

The latest shabu haul brings the total amount of drugs found and intercepted off the coast of Western and Northern Luzon since last month to P18.5 billion.

The first discovery was on May 29, when 10 bales of methamphetamine hydrochloride were fished in the waters west of the Bajo de Masinloc by a fishing crew from Bataan. The recovered drugs were worth P1.5 billion.

The following week, fishermen from Pangasinan and Ilocos Sur found packets of shabu adrift in coastal waters and surrendered a total of 1,013 kilograms of the illegal drug to authorities. The total value of the recovered substance was P6.89 billion.

On June 16, local fishermen also recovered shabu floating in the waters off Ilocos Norte and Cagayan provinces. PDEA placed the total value of these finds at P111.5 million.

PDEA said that fishermen had so far turned over shabu packets to authorities in 39 recorded incidents.

PDEA Director General Undersecretary Isagani Nerez had earlier noted that all recent incidents where shabu was recovered within the waters of provinces in Luzon. He said an in-depth investigation is being made “to determine the place of origin of the recovered shabu that were off-loaded at sea for pick-up (by) intended recipients.”

“Strong currents may have brought them to the site where they were found,” Nerez added.

Nerez had also said that the Chinese Drug Triad is behind the recent dumping of shabu in the WPS, pointing out that the packaging of shabu in teabags with Chinese markings is a signature trademark of the drug syndicate.

A check by HeadlineZambales earlier showed several cases wherein tea packs, particularly the “Daguayin” brand, have been used in several attempts to smuggle shabu in the country.

These include a P400-million shabu bust at the Liloan Ferry Terminal in Leyte in November last year, wherein 57 heat-sealed tea bag packets were confiscated; the P6.8-million buy-bust operation in Las Piñas City in December 2022, which yielded 1 kilo of shabu in a vacuum-sealed Daguanyin tea bag; and another buy-bust in Sultan Kudarat in January 2021, which turned up one kilo of shabu placed inside a green plastic cellophane Daguanyin pack. 