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Special Report: Meth gangs of China star in Philippines drug crisisBy John Chalmers | ARAYAT, PHILIPPINESIt was around 10 a.m. on September 22 when the raid on the pig farm began. Accompanied by fire and sanitation officials, a police team entered the compound at the foot of the extinct volcano Mount Arayat, north of Manila, on the pretext they were conducting a safety inspection.They didn't find any pigs. What they did uncover, in a hangar larger than a football field, was a raised platform supporting a diesel generator, an industrial chiller and distillation equipment – all for the production of the highly addictive drug methamphetamine. The industrial-sized laboratory, the police report said, was capable of producing at least 200 kilograms a day of meth. Around that time, a kilogram of meth had a street value of $120,000, the police said.Philippine law enforcement authorities had been alerted to the farm by locals who reported spotting vehicles with "Chinese-looking men" entering at night and leaving before dawn. During the raid, police arrested Hong Wenzheng, a 39-year-old Chinese national from Fujian province who is now in prison awaiting trial. Four other men believed to be Chinese nationals escaped and are the target of a manhunt.The piggery bust points to an uncomfortable truth for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as he wages his "war on drugs": The problem he's fighting is largely made in China, the country he is embracing as a potential ally at the expense of longstanding ties with the United States.The arrest of Hong, who has pleaded not guilty, added to the ranks of Chinese nationals seized in the Philippines on narcotics charges. Of 77 foreign nationals arrested for meth-related drug offenses between January 2015 and mid-August 2016, nearly two-thirds were Chinese and almost a quarter were Taiwanese or Hong Kong residents, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).Continued: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-drugs-china-specialreport-idUSKBN1451UL
