Triads behind shabu supply, says PDEA
BAGUIO CITY — Three of the most powerful triads are the country's top suppliers of shabu, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said.
PDEA said these are the United Bamboo Gang (Bamboo Triad), 14K Triad or Hong Kong Triad, and Sun Yee On Triad.
These triads, who have their roots in dialect groups, trade guilds or political movements, are now responsible for much of the world’s drug trafficking and vice establishments, Director Derrick Carreon, PDEA spokesperson, said, quoting PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino.
Aquino said the Taiwan-based Bamboo Triad was formed in the 1950s and its "members are engaged in almost every illegal activity imaginable, from prostitution, gambling, extortion to gunrunning, human trafficking and illegal drug smuggling on a worldwide scale."
The triad operates in the US, Canada, Britain, France and Australia, as well as virtually every country in Asia, including the Philippines.
PDEA said the 14K Triad was reportedly founded in Guangzhou, China in 1945 as an anticommunist task force. Four years later, Aquino said, the 14K Triad moved to Hong Kong and now exerts considerable influence over West Kowloon, Yuen Long and Kwun Tong. The 14K is engaged in large-scale drug trafficking around the world.
Sun Yee On Triad reportedly started in Hong Kong in 1919 but is now based in mainland China and Macau. It has more than 55,000 members worldwide. Sun Yee On Triad is said to be the most organized and wealthiest triad society.
The 14K and Sun Yee On Triads are archrivals with a propensity for violence, the PDEA claimed.
It also said both groups supply Mexico’s Sinaloa Drug Cartel — a dangerous and powerful international drug trafficking organization based in Mexico City — with raw materials needed to manufacture shabu, as demand skyrockets.
Ties between these triads and Sinaloa cartel were outlined in a report by the Mexican Attorney General’s Office in 2013, PDEA said.
PDEA caught Horacio Herrera Hernandez, a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel, in a buy-bust operation in front of a restaurant along Makati Avenue, Barangay Poblacion, Makati City on January 11, 2015.
The agency also found the Sinaloa Drug Cartel's connection in the country when PDEA and police seized P420 million worth of shabu in a Christmas Day raid in 2013 at a game fowl ranch in Lipa City, Batangas.
The ranch, Aquino added, was leased by Mexican nationals, who are alleged members of the drug cartel.
On January 6 and 13, 2012, three clandestine shabu laboratories were dismantled in Ayala Alabang Village, Muntinlupa City.