Fighting Asia’s drug scourge

The report that the Sinaloa drug cartel is trying to make inroads in Hong Kong by going into a joint venture with the triads in that Chinese city confirms what Philippine anti-narcotics authorities discovered late last year: that the dreaded Mexican drug ring is targeting Asia as its next market.

Last Christmas Day, a stash of methampethamine hydrochloride or shabu worth almost half a billion pesos was discovered by a team led by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) at a game fowl farm in Lipa City. The raiders identified the shabu as a shipment smuggled in by the Sinaloa. Arrests were made but the cartel’s point man in its Philippine operation got away.