THE long arm of the law has finally caught up with a man who was meted life imprisonment for smuggling shabu into the country in 1990 and remained free for 18 years.
The National Bureau of Investigation said the convict, identified as Frank Chua, escaped numerous times from authorities and even set up a restaurant inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone that he used as a front for his drug trafficking activities.
Last July 28, the NBI finally put an end to Chua’s caper, arresting him in Sampaloc, Manila.
“He admitted that he was the same person arrested for drug offense several times,” the NBI said in a statement.
Chua’s brush with the law started on August 10, 1989 when he and several cohorts were arrested for smuggling 58 kilos of shabu. Charges for violation of Republic Act 6425 or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972 were filed against Chua and his cohorts before the Ilocos Sur regional trial court in Candon city.
However, before the trial started, Chua escaped from the provincial jail in Vigan city on March 22, 1990.
The court proceeded to hear the case in absentia and found Chua guilty, sentencing him to life imprisonment at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa city.
The NBI said Chua hid in several places in the country to evade law enforcers hot on his track and finally settled in Subic in 1997 and even set up Ding Ho Restaurant and Zone Swan International Inc. that the bureau claimed he used for his drug trafficking activities.
