NEARLY A TON OF SHABU, A GROUNDED BOAT, AND A SYNDICATE THAT SENT DRONES TO FIND IT

The speedboat hit rocks somewhere along the shoreline of Sitio Agbalite, Barangay Harrison, Paluan, Occidental Mindoro at around 3 in the afternoon on March 10. Its hull punctured, the vessel ran aground. Two men on board — later identified as Chinese nationals — refused help from local residents who approached the stranded craft. They could not communicate. They did not speak Tagalog. When soldiers from the nearby 76th Infantry Battalion patrol base arrived minutes after residents reported the scene, the two men fled toward the mountains.

The soldiers inspected the boat anyway. Inside, they found 43 sacks.

What Was in Those Sacks

The sacks contained methamphetamine hydrochloride — shabu — with a confirmed purity of 90 percent, according to PDEA Mimaropa lab results. The sacks bore Vietnamese-language markings. PDEA Director General Isagani Nerez said the drugs did not originate from the Philippines.

The initial army field estimate put the weight at 2.2 metric tons — a calculation based on 50 kilograms per sack. That figure was wrong. When PDEA physically weighed the contents, each sack came in at roughly 20 to 25 kilograms. The actual confirmed weight, as announced by DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla at a press conference in Calapan City on March 13, is 986 kilograms. The street value, per official figures, falls between P5.8 billion and P6.8 billion.

The speedboat also carried a Starlink satellite communication device, hand flares, fire extinguishers, batteries, and life-saving equipment. The boat is registered to CrystalWave Services LTD. Inc., with a business address in Olongapo City, Zambales.

The Arrests

The two Chinese nationals spent the night in the mountains. On March 11, at around 5 PM, troops from the 5th Infantry Battalion, working with Military Intelligence and PNP Special Action Force personnel, captured them in Barangay Alipa, Paluan. Major General Ramon Zagala, commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, confirmed the arrests: "This afternoon, we captured the two Chinese individuals who escaped yesterday."

They were identified as Xing Xing Zhan, 38, married and unemployed, from Anhui, China, and Bin Shi, 36, separated and working as a freelancer, from Hubei, China. Both arrived in the Philippines on March 5 — five days before the operation. Neither cooperated with investigators. An interpreter was brought in.

A day later, on March 12 at 7:17 AM, a Philippine Navy patrol vessel, BRP Pandanan, intercepted a twin-engine rubber boat approaching Paluan from the sea. Aboard were two Filipino boatmen from Nasugbu, Batangas. They told authorities they had been hired by someone they knew as "Wendy Que," who they believed owned the grounded speedboat, to find and rescue the two Chinese nationals. Both were taken into custody.

Four arrests total. One female Chinese national believed to be the group's leader remains at large.

Drones, a Mothership, and Four Months of Preparation

Remulla said the syndicate deployed drones over Paluan to track the drugs after the boat ran aground and the suspects fled. "When their vessel ran aground and they were pursued, they utilized drones to locate the remaining drugs," he said. "These are not typical criminals. They are part of syndicates."

The suspected method: a larger vessel transfers the drugs in international waters to a smaller speedboat, which then brings the load ashore. The drugs move from a mothership to the coast with no direct trace back to the source.

The unnamed female leader had been renting a house in Batangas since November 2025 — the operation was months in the making before the March 10 attempt.

Mindoro as a Recurring Entry Point

This is not the first time drug syndicates have tried to use Mindoro. In February 2025, the Philippine Coast Guard and PDEA intercepted a vessel near Mindoro's exclusive economic zone carrying an estimated 5 tons of shabu valued at P34 billion. That vessel turned back when it spotted a PCG ship. The drugs were never physically seized.

"Syndicates always plan on landing in Mindoro," Nerez said at the March 13 press conference.

The March 2026 Paluan seizure is one of the largest single-vessel drug hauls in Philippine history, though it does not exceed the P11 billion worth of shabu intercepted in Infanta, Quezon in March 2022 — still the record for the largest physical drug seizure in the country.

What the Government Is Saying

PNP Chief General Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. was at the Calapan City press conference, where sacks of shabu were displayed to media. Remulla named the culprit directly: a Chinese-led international drug syndicate. "We are not angry at the Chinese people or at China," he said. "We are angry at the criminal Chinese who come here."

PDEA announced plans to coordinate with foreign counterparts to trace the drug origins and the syndicate behind the shipment. Remulla said the government will strengthen maritime monitoring through long-range drones and satellite technology.

The Thread That Is Still Open

The investigation is ongoing as of March 13. Wendy Que, described as the speedboat owner who directed the Filipino boatmen, has been identified but not publicly named. The Bureau of Immigration is still verifying the status of the arrested Chinese nationals.

The female Chinese national who allegedly led the group — the one who spent four months in Batangas, the one the drones were presumably trying to help — has not been found.