Philippine police and soldiers killed four Chinese drug suspects in a shootout during a sting operation outside Manila on Monday, the country’s police chief said of the second deadly counter-narcotics raid since September targeting suspected traffickers from China.
Agents from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, backed by soldiers and police intelligence officers, traded fire with the Chinese in a residential area near the city of Angeles, north of Manila, National Police chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said.
The suspects got wind of the sting and “engaged law enforcement agents in a shootout just as they were about to be arrested,” he said, adding that “The shootout resulted in the death of the suspects.”
“The suspects were known distributors of illegal drugs in the National Capital Region and Region 4-A,” Eleazar said, referring to heavily populated suburban areas south of Metropolitan Manila.
During the raid, the authorities seized 38 kilograms of crystal meth, worth some 262.2 million pesos (5.2 million dollars), he said. They also recovered four handguns from the slain suspects, who ranged from 29 to 43 years old, and came from Fujian and Shanxi provinces, officials said.
Monday’s drug confiscation was the second biggest since last month when government operatives also killed four Chinese drug suspects and seized 500 kg (1,100 lbs) of crystal meth valued at some 67.7 million dollars – the biggest haul so far in the Philippines in 2021.
Since taking office in 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte has launched a deadly war on illegal drugs, vowing to eradicate them from the country.
Under his administration, the police have killed about 8,000 suspected drug addicts and dealers whose markets are primarily located in the sprawling slums of Manila. The number could be as high as 30,000, according to human rights advocates and drug-war survivors.
Duterte now faces the prospect of being prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as he ends his six-year term and loses presidential immunity next year.