Today is Thursday, July 9, 2010 and it is now 650PM here in Quezon City, Luzon, Philippines.
Recap: 2 entries ago I began talking about drugs in the Philippines and when I got to the late 1960s, in the 1st entry, I meandered into a detailed rant about the differences between forms of heroin. The last entry dealt with these differences.
This Entry: In the late 1960s there was roughly 10 kgs of Heroin#3 being sold in Metro Manila each month, not that much all things considered, though a hell of a lot more than now (because now there is none, nada, zilch and zero).
The 1st lab operators were Ethnic Chinese, "Tsinoy," or "Chinoy" as Filipino-Chinese are known. Most Westerners see "Chinese" as a monolithic group, all being basically the same as the others. Not so, at all.
At first, the labs were operated by ethnic Fukkinese, the largest Chinese group in the country. Then, in 1965 an ethnic Chiu Chiu, a man named Lim Seng, branched out from his resturants and printing company and opened his own lab as well.
The Chiu Chiu have dominated the SE Asian heroin trade since the end of WWII. While certain ethnicities like the Fukkinese dominate certain nations as the most influential or largest Chinese ethnicity (outside of drugs, just in terms of population), the Chiu Chiu have dominated smuggling throught the SE Asian Chinese Diaspora (overseas Chinese Communities) since at least the late 19th Century CE/AD. After the WWII Era it was only natural then that the Chiu Chiu would gravitate to the heroin trade.
First, as smugglers and couriers and later as actual distributors the Chiu Chiu managed to carve out a very profitable niche for themselves. Lim Seng gained financial backing from fellow Chiu Chiu and began obtaining Heroin#1 (finished morphine hcl.) from Chiu Chiu distributors in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, and later directly from the Thai groups that acted as middlemen between Burmese Ethnic Chinese manufacturers (ethnic Kokang and KMT Nationalists who quickly intermarried and became the backbone of the Burmese heroin trade) and Malaysian #3 manufacturers and distributors.
After ramping up production Lim Seng flooded the local market, driving down the price of a "papelito"(little paper, the name for a retail uniy of heroin consisting of 30 to 40mg of Heroin#3 ) until it was selling for the Philippine equivalent of US20 Cents. This quickly sunk his competitors leaving Lem Seng the only show in town, in fact the only retail distributor in all of the Philippines.
Smoking was the dominant route of administration by far, but Seng was looking to move beyond the 10kg he was averaging a month. Realising that he needed to manufacture Heroin#4 if he hoped to truly make big money, because that was the type in big demand throughout the West, he shopped for some Chiu Chiu chemists, finally hiring a man from Kowloon, in Hong Kong.
Though Hong Kong was likewise dominated by #3, local producers had begun making #4 for export, and had been slowly building a local market as well for the more expensive white powder. The presence of this new local market left a surplus of trained heroin chemists, and so Lim Seng began manufacturing #4, and distributing it to the US.
By 1970 he was distributing 1 tonne of Heroin#4 annually, with the US pegging his product at 10% of the entire US marketshare, and virtually all non-Mexican Heroin west of the Mississippi River.
By 1971 the Philippines was in social and political upheaval. Dictator Ferdinand Marcos was facing a huge amount of political unrest centered in the capitol, especially in Manila's universities. Looking for ways to deal with this growing threat he was without patience for other social problems, drug addiiction being one of the most pressing problems.
Trying to shore up crumbling public support he came out hard against crime and illegal drugs warning his underlings to put a stop to the local distribution. Seng was warned by his protectors in government to either stop producing local product or else move his base of operations to a quiet corner of the nation.
Arrogantly Seng refused and by September, 1972 found himself sitting with a gun to his head as the new anti-narcotics unit of the "PC" (Philippine Constalbury), "CANU" (Constalbury Anti- Narcotics Unit) searched his printing shoppe. Stupidly, Seng had secreted a large #4 lab on the premises allowing the investigators to catch Seng red handed with 50kg of heroin.
Taken to Fort Bonifacio, the HQ of the PC, he was sentenced by a 7 man Military Tribunal to Life in prison, after bribing at least 1 of the military officers on the Tribunal. Chief Commanding Officer of the PC and future President of the Philippines, Fidel Ramos was livid, as he saw the arrogance of Seng as a challenge on many levels.
About a week later PC officers "discovered" a very well detailed escape plan in Seng's prison cell. Lobbying Marcos for a rescinding of the Life sentence, Ramos got his wish when Seng was re-sentenced to death.
Just after New Year, 1973 Seng was shown on live TV joking and guffawing as his handlers released him from his cell and escorted him to Fort Bonifacio's Parade Ground. The camera shown Seng as he face became absolutely radiant, apprently thinking that his backers had finally worked out a "deal," certainly they had been given enough of his cash to do so.
As he was pushed towards what appeared to be a telephone pole his smile turned to horror. It wasn't until he had been tied to the pole that he began actually struggling, and as the blindfold was affixed viewers could see a look of abject terror on Seng's face, a look that remained as the rifles fired.
As Seng bled to death on the ground the country was transfixed. The execution had a lasting impact on the Philippines but for the addicts of Manila it was business as usual, for a short while anyway. 90 days later those US 20 Cent papelitos had increased in cost to almost US 3 Dollars. By 1974 the papelitos were gone along with the country's domestic heroin trade.
By 1980 Marcos had outlawed even prescription opiates and opioids except for 2, nabulphine hcl.and butorphanol tartrate. The 2 substances were considered by American authorities to have absolutely no abuse potential. In fact, nabulphine was until the new millenium and Tramadol, the only opiate/opioid to never have been "Schedualed."
By 1986 Marcos was overthrown but nothing changed in terms of opiates/opioids...until West African organisations began taking advantage of Filipino naievete on the subject.
Unlike virtually every other SE Asian Nation the Philippines harboured no paranoia about the substance and so it was easy getting in and out of the country without invasive searches. Additionally, and most importantly, the US felt that since no trade took place inside the country travellers from the Philippines were not worth scrutinising (this was long before the country became a methamphetamine centre).
By 1990 the vacation was over, when a joint American DEA and Philippine PDEA sting against heroin dealers turned up an uncomfortable reality.. The sting ended up with the 2 Filipino dealers shot to death at close range, under curious circumstances. The case became even more controversial when an investigation found that the 2 "dealers" were in reality high ranking AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) officers.
To be continued...
(Edited for spelling)
Recap: 2 entries ago I began talking about drugs in the Philippines and when I got to the late 1960s, in the 1st entry, I meandered into a detailed rant about the differences between forms of heroin. The last entry dealt with these differences.
This Entry: In the late 1960s there was roughly 10 kgs of Heroin#3 being sold in Metro Manila each month, not that much all things considered, though a hell of a lot more than now (because now there is none, nada, zilch and zero).
The 1st lab operators were Ethnic Chinese, "Tsinoy," or "Chinoy" as Filipino-Chinese are known. Most Westerners see "Chinese" as a monolithic group, all being basically the same as the others. Not so, at all.
At first, the labs were operated by ethnic Fukkinese, the largest Chinese group in the country. Then, in 1965 an ethnic Chiu Chiu, a man named Lim Seng, branched out from his resturants and printing company and opened his own lab as well.
The Chiu Chiu have dominated the SE Asian heroin trade since the end of WWII. While certain ethnicities like the Fukkinese dominate certain nations as the most influential or largest Chinese ethnicity (outside of drugs, just in terms of population), the Chiu Chiu have dominated smuggling throught the SE Asian Chinese Diaspora (overseas Chinese Communities) since at least the late 19th Century CE/AD. After the WWII Era it was only natural then that the Chiu Chiu would gravitate to the heroin trade.
First, as smugglers and couriers and later as actual distributors the Chiu Chiu managed to carve out a very profitable niche for themselves. Lim Seng gained financial backing from fellow Chiu Chiu and began obtaining Heroin#1 (finished morphine hcl.) from Chiu Chiu distributors in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, and later directly from the Thai groups that acted as middlemen between Burmese Ethnic Chinese manufacturers (ethnic Kokang and KMT Nationalists who quickly intermarried and became the backbone of the Burmese heroin trade) and Malaysian #3 manufacturers and distributors.
After ramping up production Lim Seng flooded the local market, driving down the price of a "papelito"(little paper, the name for a retail uniy of heroin consisting of 30 to 40mg of Heroin#3 ) until it was selling for the Philippine equivalent of US20 Cents. This quickly sunk his competitors leaving Lem Seng the only show in town, in fact the only retail distributor in all of the Philippines.
Smoking was the dominant route of administration by far, but Seng was looking to move beyond the 10kg he was averaging a month. Realising that he needed to manufacture Heroin#4 if he hoped to truly make big money, because that was the type in big demand throughout the West, he shopped for some Chiu Chiu chemists, finally hiring a man from Kowloon, in Hong Kong.
Though Hong Kong was likewise dominated by #3, local producers had begun making #4 for export, and had been slowly building a local market as well for the more expensive white powder. The presence of this new local market left a surplus of trained heroin chemists, and so Lim Seng began manufacturing #4, and distributing it to the US.
By 1970 he was distributing 1 tonne of Heroin#4 annually, with the US pegging his product at 10% of the entire US marketshare, and virtually all non-Mexican Heroin west of the Mississippi River.
By 1971 the Philippines was in social and political upheaval. Dictator Ferdinand Marcos was facing a huge amount of political unrest centered in the capitol, especially in Manila's universities. Looking for ways to deal with this growing threat he was without patience for other social problems, drug addiiction being one of the most pressing problems.
Trying to shore up crumbling public support he came out hard against crime and illegal drugs warning his underlings to put a stop to the local distribution. Seng was warned by his protectors in government to either stop producing local product or else move his base of operations to a quiet corner of the nation.
Arrogantly Seng refused and by September, 1972 found himself sitting with a gun to his head as the new anti-narcotics unit of the "PC" (Philippine Constalbury), "CANU" (Constalbury Anti- Narcotics Unit) searched his printing shoppe. Stupidly, Seng had secreted a large #4 lab on the premises allowing the investigators to catch Seng red handed with 50kg of heroin.
Taken to Fort Bonifacio, the HQ of the PC, he was sentenced by a 7 man Military Tribunal to Life in prison, after bribing at least 1 of the military officers on the Tribunal. Chief Commanding Officer of the PC and future President of the Philippines, Fidel Ramos was livid, as he saw the arrogance of Seng as a challenge on many levels.
About a week later PC officers "discovered" a very well detailed escape plan in Seng's prison cell. Lobbying Marcos for a rescinding of the Life sentence, Ramos got his wish when Seng was re-sentenced to death.
Just after New Year, 1973 Seng was shown on live TV joking and guffawing as his handlers released him from his cell and escorted him to Fort Bonifacio's Parade Ground. The camera shown Seng as he face became absolutely radiant, apprently thinking that his backers had finally worked out a "deal," certainly they had been given enough of his cash to do so.
As he was pushed towards what appeared to be a telephone pole his smile turned to horror. It wasn't until he had been tied to the pole that he began actually struggling, and as the blindfold was affixed viewers could see a look of abject terror on Seng's face, a look that remained as the rifles fired.
As Seng bled to death on the ground the country was transfixed. The execution had a lasting impact on the Philippines but for the addicts of Manila it was business as usual, for a short while anyway. 90 days later those US 20 Cent papelitos had increased in cost to almost US 3 Dollars. By 1974 the papelitos were gone along with the country's domestic heroin trade.
By 1980 Marcos had outlawed even prescription opiates and opioids except for 2, nabulphine hcl.and butorphanol tartrate. The 2 substances were considered by American authorities to have absolutely no abuse potential. In fact, nabulphine was until the new millenium and Tramadol, the only opiate/opioid to never have been "Schedualed."
By 1986 Marcos was overthrown but nothing changed in terms of opiates/opioids...until West African organisations began taking advantage of Filipino naievete on the subject.
Unlike virtually every other SE Asian Nation the Philippines harboured no paranoia about the substance and so it was easy getting in and out of the country without invasive searches. Additionally, and most importantly, the US felt that since no trade took place inside the country travellers from the Philippines were not worth scrutinising (this was long before the country became a methamphetamine centre).
By 1990 the vacation was over, when a joint American DEA and Philippine PDEA sting against heroin dealers turned up an uncomfortable reality.. The sting ended up with the 2 Filipino dealers shot to death at close range, under curious circumstances. The case became even more controversial when an investigation found that the 2 "dealers" were in reality high ranking AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) officers.
To be continued...
(Edited for spelling)
