NBI-National Capital Region Chief, Regional Director Ruel Lasala, who also heads the Anti-Illegal Drugs Task Force said, however, that this might actually happen without the mall owners knowing about it.

''From raids of shabu laboratories around the metropolis, we also saw dry goods, Christmas decorations, plastic wares, kitchenwares, toys and noodles at the site,'' Lasala explained.

He explained that this has been consistent in all the raids of shabu laboratories discovered in Antipolo, Valenzuela, Quezon City, and Paranaque.

Lasala said that it has been a prevailing theory among anti-drugs agencies that illegal drugs like shabu are shipped into the country by mixing them with legitimate products.

''The legitimate products used to conceal the drugs from inspectors, actually serve as a bonus or an added income for the drug dealers.  This is probably why they could sell these products for ridiculously low prices,'' Lasala said.

Stall owners, on the other hand, grab the opportunity to purchase cheap imported goods for a very low price, so they too can sell them like ''hot cakes''.

He explained that the so-called shabu found in shirts at a popular shopping mall might actually be only residues of the bigger bulk of the drugs concealed inside crates.

Lasala said that when shipping the drugs mixed with the legitimate goods, the hundreds of kilos of drugs are somehow mishandled, leaving ''spills'' on the container.

Lasala said that it is unfortunate that most port and airport authorities still do not have giant x-rays to inspect large containers, which might prove to be too tasking for customs officials to inspect piece by piece.

K-9 dogs, on the other hand, are only good at detecting the finished product, and can not detect the presence of raw materials, chemicals, or drug precursors.

Lasala said that, coincidentally, like the cheap imported items, finished products (drugs) also come from either Taiwan or Guandong or Fujian, China.

Ephedrine, on the other hand, is usually imported from India and China while ketamine is sourced from either India or Korea.

He said that they could not conduct an operation to go after the importers of these smuggled products, as they use fictitious names or aliases in signing the necessary documents needed for the transaction.

''That is why we only go after shabu laboratories instead,'' Lasala said.