P4.3-B drug haul in Manila port may have come from China, says anti-narcotics chief
THE P4.3-billion worth of “shabu” seized by authorities at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) on Tuesday evening may have come from a drug syndicate in China, Director General Aaron Aquino of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said on Wednesday morning.
Aquino said in a radio interview that Philippine authorities have been tracking the syndicate “for seven years.”
“We even suspect that there is an even bigger amount of drugs in the country that we didn’t catch,” Aquino said in Filipino.
He said the abandoned shipment container, which had been in the port since June 28, came from Malaysia but “it’s possible that Malaysia was just a trans-shipment point.”
Reports indicated the shipment was consigned to Vecaba Trading under the name of a certain Vedasto Baraquel, a resident of Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro. He is now the subject of an investigation.
“The consignee is not yet off the hook but it looks like he has no knowledge that a syndicate group is using him,” Aquino said.
Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapena (left) turns over 500 kilos of shabu to Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director Aaron Aquino on Tuesday night at Bureau of Customs in Manila. PHOTO BY DANTE DIOSINA JR.
The 500 grams of shabu, hidden inside magnetic scrap filters, were seized by operatives from PDEA, Philippine National Police, and Bureau of Customs on Tuesday evening after receiving a tip that the suspicious shipment container has been abandoned for weeks.
PDEA considers it one of its most expensive hauls. ROY NARRA
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