Mayor Leonilla Montero of Panglao on Tuesday denied previous reports which indicated that a mobile shabu laboratory run by Taiwanese nationals has been operating in the town.

Montero said that the alleged illegal activity reported in the town involved illegal online gaming, not drugs, supporting the previous claim of Panglao police chief Sr. Insp. Jomar Pomarejos.

The alleged online gaming was conducted at a rented apartment in Barangay Tawala, the same place which was previously suspected of being a shabu laboratory, added Montero.

Surveillance operations on the apartment have already been conducted by the Panglao police even prior to the surfacing of previous reports but these were not revealed to media to avoid alerting the suspects.

According to Montero, the suspicion on the alleged illegal gaming activity inside the apartment arose after WiFi bills of the rented space were found to be exorbitant.

The illegal online gaming activities in the town have also reportedly been ongoing for a long time but suspects were elusive as they kept on transferring operations from one place to another.

The said foreign suspects are also reportedly wanted in other countries and have similar operations in Cebu.

Last week, Pomarejos said that the report on the shabu laboratory caught him by surprise but he made it clear that they will be investigating to clarify the veracity of the information.

According to Pomarejos, he has not, prior to the surfacing of recent accounts, received any information from the police’s intelligence network on such operation since he became the town’s police chief. (Allen Doydora)