Crystal Meth and Cartels in the Philippines: The Shabu Trap

1.7 million Filipinos use drugs the most popular substance being abused in the country still shabu this is methamphetamine that's similar our NATO the CCA are very will happen among us el mapa de trabajo at the bottom you can agree Scott mo you like fungal taro until vinieron [Music] the Philippines drug trade is worth an estimated eight point four billion dollars shabu the local name for crystal meth has for the last 20 years dominated the market its popularity czar stimulant fueled by grueling work hours and a profound lack of opportunities has made it the go-to drug for those looking to work longer hours to earn more money but while the country's drug trade has traditionally been controlled by Chinese drug traffickers earlier this year police in Manila arrested Horacio Hernandez Herrera an alleged third in command to Mexico's infamous Sinaloa cartel one of the world's most powerful and deadly drug trafficking organizations we spoke to Colonel Espino of the Philippine National Police to find out why shabu was so popular and the challenges law enforcement faced in the country what do you think it is about shadowy this that makes it so popular in the Philippines if this tube hmm it's very cheap that's quite easy to get it and find it yes and the particular drugs that they are selling it this get recorded ordinary people here and what are the sort of main challenges for the PNP and the PDA when it comes to tackling drug trafficking organizations in the country well what we could say here is the drug trafficker really have a lot of money they could buy the no enforcer they could reach up to the judiciary the prosecutors and you must have really a strong moral conviction not to be tempted with those bribe read so what are the main methods that you use to target and prosecute these big foreign cartels on the street level we are being held by our community who help us pinpoint what particular barangay or places in the community are rampant in illegal drug with a staggering 92% of Miller's Berengar neighborhoods estimated to be affected by shabu we met with an informant working with the Philippine DEA to find out how shabu was affecting her neighborhood in am dealing them in an informant family in a dialogue lady boba not even gaga muscle the confidential informant has now joined us in the back of the vehicle and we're gonna drive into her neighborhood where she's going to identify the locations where dealers are distributing Shabbo into the neighborhood for the agents in the car so they can prepare their intelligence for an eventual raid this house number one one zero two Porter's in there or there's another one pusher in here what number 197 the one with the green color at the left side the name is this one what would the big boss are in here so you've been into these houses and you've seen handle drugs or do drugs how long have you been an informant for the for the PDA yes I recently because I cannot take anymore I can't take anymore no just to keep silent no I wanted them to be put in jail why do you think chapeau is so popular in Manila and your district here we have very no punishment so gangs don't fail yes the guns don't feel those drug peddlers don't feel because all the justice justice is if the death penalty should come back in our justice system I think the best so are you worried for your safety by day yes when your family is leaving in this area have you got a weapon to protect yourself at home oh yeah we were put at home with a license do their pushers have weapons of course with a quarter of Filipinos living in poverty shabby's affordability and accessibility have made it the drug of choice with open abuse becoming the norm in manila's poorer areas we met with one user to find out how he got into Shaban Junior how old are you was the first time you took Shannon noticing with our NATO the CCA they are 18 years old now among the 19 son of amber Patrice I need to pee in some way in a building ICL me nakia and I also mom onion insu mama you mean Samana locked in so mama never know a yuna and Haley never lie in the sink oh so do a lot of people that use it get into dealing shabby to pay for their habit oh you bought a Dharan impera yummy bar material I'm gonna know we decided a Sunni banana and tarragon Medina oh no getting bigger and better will happen among us Elmo possible belonging in a goofy Scott camo like a big taco what your parents think of you using shabby oh sorry alumna see you father go patina in mind Eric avoiding pero para el an among English I mean Paran similarly no matter in today goes well Anna Dean I mean day again paranoia nothing oh girl it's all the little sorry Cindy demon Tama invalidating Junior took us to meet with some of his friends who've been smoking shabu for over 20 years hey guys living Baba would be like so this is two thousand four hundred pesos worth which would last these guys quite a long time Russ why do you think shabu is so popular naginata can come into power boost to Munna she don't wanna reduce to an unfailing deep sorry paragraph he could kill Madhavan but no more us and that - - Padma golovkin in the money so when you take a hit of shabby how does it make you feel Marama continue to do a lot of people that use shabbu also then get into selling it to try and feed their habit oh I think I have a 7-bit that I don't want anything she told me at the like a p9 little things you know who's saying you know Paraiba apatite nothing so it's pretty swearing li hot in there and there's a lot of shabby smokin as they worried a bit of a contact high but from what they were telling us you know Russ has been doing this for 20 years once you're smoking the shabbu you kind of locked in for a very long time there's not really many other opportunities for people to get help to get off it sounds like a very dangerous drug that these guys are clearly struggling with cheap and highly addictive using and dealing shabbu clearly has its risks we managed to gain access to one small-scale operation typical to Manila to find out how their setup worked so working can you tell me what you're doing here beeping Bon Ami but I'd be getting more power maybe more money some mint or some one point you know I did not part about the nine Paraiba this could be how much is here on the table right now hundred passing Omega being available you're very well aware of the effects that shampoo has on people and the stranglehold it can have on their lives how does that make you feel being involved in this business I mean young well imagine I've been democratic apple filling things done an okay time do you know I mean I began fancying um give them a lot of dough well I mean David a London I mean impaired a bunch of them don't let me know need do you want to expand your operation to other barren guys are you pretty happy with the territory you currently control salmon or waiting get it on they forgot an interest Bob anybody to get a seat on my name and you're ready to kill to protect your business what was the book bathing they began open today so in January we saw a Mexican Sinaloa cartel member arrested in Manila carrying a large amount of shabu have you seen any Mexican involvement in the shabbu trades over the years but an overwhelming 89% of narcotic arrests in Manila this year was shabby related creating fierce competition amongst local gangs the gang members took us to some scrubland outside the capital to test their weapons and tell us just how dangerous the trade has become so what can you tell me what are these weapons and why you guys have to use them in the business that you're in I mean how's the business over time as Chavez become more popular become more risky my Snuggie kindergarten they let me know but I mean I'm Tara what's up and only do you think you've ever killed anyone have it when you've had to use these weapons to defend your Baron guy but I listen English you know I mean again we get a leg up with nothing in money iiving together they bomb our top sellers in Srilanka we knew the burden I mean in my mind giving them to the police often try and break up your operation will not be the Bobby all day long I mean the case of O Muhammad are we pursued our you know thing they'd only let my thoughts and they not see the amount of thing the police aware of what's going on they're aware of who controls which areas who controls what kind of product needs more more police in the Omar for product that is happening [Music] to find out more about the shifting relationships between foreign drug syndicates we met with chief inspector murder gear of the anti illegal drug Special Operations task force who headed up this year's arrest to suspected Sinaloa member Horatio Hernandez Herrera based on our experiences these syndicates operating in the country Rd the Chinese indicates and now the Mexicans in the law on drug cartel that started to operate in the country but lately we have observed the local Chinese drug syndicates hub cooperated or worked together with the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel and how does that relationship work exactly the based on the report the DEA the working relationship between the Mexicans in the law one and the local Chinese syndicates is on more on distribution of the finished product coming from the Mexico so Mexico delivers finished meth or shabu to the Chinese who then import into the country yes and could you tell me what are the main ports of entry and how are they able to smuggle so much in without being noticed the drugs coming from abroad and there's through the customs and of course the the vast shoreline of the Philippines the drugs are dropped from the open sea water in the oceans and pick up with the some local cohorts of the syndicate and what do you think it is about the Philippines that is so attractive to these foreign cartels we perceive corruption among the pillars of the criminal justice system one mayor was arrested transporting hundreds of kilograms of meth using the local ambulance of the municipality well so a lot of a lot of sort of politicians use drug money to fund their campaigns we believe that those arrested government officials elected in the point that elapsed 100 200 we believe that the drug money could be used this coming election corruption appeared to be at every level but to see just how true these claims were we reached out to a former member of the Philippine National Police to talk about his experience with bribery and corruption within the police force how long were you in the police force and what departments did you work in I entered in the police sherry since 1984 up to 2014 monitoring corruption in observation only on seven hundred cops guru baba and how did it make you feel knowing that your work was often compromised by corruption maternal on deleting the pneuma did not go animal my uncle anytime during your service did you ever take a bribe tang of pineapple diamond Malati no big a dynamo was a mom a banana for double is the Messiah tengo una rima cos he masala dhaba NASA that Popham Vanessa Sam Coleman was our boss our opponent but I didn't bill Accardo so driving around Honda waiting for phone call from the delivery guys and his job is to deliver larger amounts of shabbu to a number of street-level dealers or then sell on the shabbu to the users in the district Joseph how much shabbu you carrying on you right now and how much is it worth Mangrum nicely because um have you seen over the past couple of years like an increase in demand for shabu Zenden binged event but I mean there are many lane gamma clash Abajo Oh yard we're now going to follow Joseph on his bike as he delivers the shabu to two of the street-level dealers were given the high demand for shabu Joseph has to make two of these runs every single day she's just dropped off some to this guy whether Philippines had fallen short in creating opportunities for its poorest Shabbo is picking up the slack being turning the unemployed into dealers or enabling users to work even longer hours the Sinaloa cartel working alongside the well-established Chinese gangs sets a dangerous precedent one that the corruption ruin the police and government will make so much harder to tackle compounding the misery for those plagued by the drug [Music] [Music]

Channel: VICE News

Views: 9,660,285

Keywords: Shabu, shabu trap vice news, Horacio Hernandez Herrera, drugs, crystal meth, Philippines, Meth, China, Mexico, sinaloa cartel, corruption, police, PDEA, murder, guns, barangay, Manila, Vice News, news, VICE, documentary, documentaries, interview, interviews, journalism, world news, breaking news, culture, wild, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, videos, vice guide, vice presents, vice mag, vice news documentary, el chapo trial, sinaloa cartel documentary

Id: eJ0I7HyZNiI

Length: 18min 24sec (1104 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

fucking hell onl a buck seventy a point?!? i got ripped off hard when i was in phillippines boody basterds