By Aaron Recuenco
A Tagaytay City Regional Trial Court has sentenced Canadian national Thomas Gordon O’Quinn to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of illegal drug charges linked to the ₱9.5-billion shabu haul in Batangas, one of the country’s largest drug seizures.
The case stemmed from the April 2024 interdiction in Alitagtag, Batangas, where authorities confiscated 1.4 tons of shabu worth ₱9.5 billion.
O’Quinn was arrested a month later at a wellness resort in Tagaytay, after intelligence monitoring identified him as a key figure in the operation.
In its May 29 decision, the court convicted O’Quinn of two counts of illegal possession of dangerous drugs under Republic Act 9165.
He was sentenced to two life terms—one for possessing 45 grams of shabu (with a ₱500,000 fine) and another for 81.65 grams of cocaine (with a ₱10-million fine).
The court stressed that the chain of custody over the seized drugs remained intact and that O’Quinn, the sole occupant of the villa where the narcotics were found, failed to prove any legal authority to possess them.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Jose Melencio C. Nartatez Jr. hailed the conviction as proof of a rules-based enforcement approach that ensures not only arrests and seizures but also successful prosecutions.
