MANILA – Around P1.8 billion worth of illegal drugs shipment from Vietnam was intercepted at the Manila International Container Port on Friday evening, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said.
According to PDEA director Aaron Aquino, the shipment containing 276 kilograms of shabu wrapped in tea packaging were found inside a 40-foot container declared as plastic resin.
The Philippine officials were informed of the contraband by the Vietnamese authorities after a similar shipment with 300 kilograms of illegal drugs was seized in Ho Chi Minh City last Wednesday.
Aquino said the shipment – whose consignee was identified as Wealth Lotus Empire Corp. and was believed to be from “Golden Triangle” drug syndicate – arrived last Sunday at the Manila North Harbor.
The Bureau of Customs, meanwhile, is set to file charges against the consignee and the customs broker who processed the shipment.
“The BOC will immediately revoke the customs accreditation of the involved consignee and customs broker, and appropriate charges will be filed against them,” Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero said.
“I have ordered all district collectors to alert and examine all other similar items to ensure that our border is safe from the possible entry of illegal drugs,” added the Customs official.
Last Tuesday, three Chinese nationals and a Chinese-Filipino interpreter were arrested in an antidrug operation that led to the recovery of the shabu valued at around P1.1 billion.
The operation wasc staged in an upscale residential enclave and outside a shopping mall in Alabang village in Metro Manila.
Last month, anti-narcotics agents also raided a house in Tanza town in Cavite province south of Manila, killing two suspected Chinese drug dealers in a gun battle and seizing P1.9 billion worth of shabu./PN
