INTRA-regional cooperation among the member states of Southeast Asia (ASEAN) in the fight against illegal drugs continues to yield result after Philippine authorities announced the successful interdiction of a shipment of 200 kilos of shabu worth ₱1.36 billion upon landing at the Manila International Container Port MICP).
At a media briefing after the seizure on Wednesday, November 4, at the MICP, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla stressed the apprehension is the result of intelligence information sharing of ASEAN members.
In this case, the information was immediately forwarded to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) by Vietnam’s Anti-Narcotics Police Department, which has been monitoring the transaction, said PDEA Assistant Secretary Renato Gumban.
The contraband originated from Laos, a Customs statement said. It was then loaded to a vessel at the Port of Haiphong, North Vietnam.
The shabu was then transferred to another container packed with “cartons” on reaching Hongkong for shipment to the Philippines.
PDEA immediately briefed the Bureau of Customs’ Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) as soon as the cargo left Haiphong, the BOC said.
Officials declined to name the local consignee or the manifest declaration of the contraband as well as other potential suspects involved pending the result of investigation.
The statement is also fuzzy on the timeline of the entire transaction but claimed 50 of the boxes examined confirmed they contain shabu.
Customs Commissioner Ariel F. Nepomuceno said they would be working closely with the PNP and other agencies in the backtracking of the shipment and the identification of other suspects.
Data from last year showed the BOC already conducted 520 anti-narcotics operations that resulted to the confiscation of illegal drugs valued at more than ₱11.294 billion.
The BOC added that of the seven illegal drugs-connected cases filed in court, 10 suspects on two cases have already been convicted. Their identity, however, remains unknown.
The successful interdiction follows two other drug-related smuggling incidents in Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand where two shipments of shabu were also seized while being shipped to the Philippines last month.
Last October 1, Malaysian authorities announced the arrest of a Filipino and other suspects after 521 kilos of shabu from Laos worth more than ₱3.54 billion were found inside several luggage that he was bringing into the Philippines on board a private chartered plane.
On October 7, Thai authorities announced the seizure of a vessel loaded with over 1,000 kilos (1 ton) of shabu, reportedly bound for the Philippines.
Both incidents point to the Philippines’ reemergence as a major market for illegal drugs while remaining as a major transshipment point for the global illegal drugs trade.
₱99.4 million ‘Ketamine’ seized in Clark
In another development, the Port of Clark said they uncovered 19.89 kilos of ‘Ketamine’ worth ₱99.445 million from two parcels that arrived from Europe last October 22.
District Collector Jairus Reyes said the first shipment from Switzerland declared to contain “roasted coffee beans” and “coffee machine” bound to an address in Mandaluyong City yielded 9.882 kilos of Ketamine.
The second shipment from Amsterdam consigned to an address in Montalban, Rizal declared as “bicarbonate cleaning powder” yielded over 10 kilos of the illegal drugs, Reyes told Commissioner Nepomuceno.