A total of P34.5-million worth of illegal drugs was seized by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency or PDEA in two ports recently.
The BOC Port of Clark, in a report dated March 7, said that authorities intercepted 816 grams of suspected shabu with an estimated street value of P5,548,800 concealed in a shipment of toys that originated from Los Angeles, California and bound for Cagayan de Oro City.
The report said that PDEA provided derogatory information on the shipment, prompting the BOC to examine 10 pieces of toys —one surprise egg toy and nine kinetic sand toys—which yielded vacuum-sealed pouches containing a white crystalline substance, suspected to be illegal narcotics.
Samples were taken and turned over to the PDEA for chemical analysis, which confirmed the substance as shabu, classified as a dangerous drug under Republic Act (RA) 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act. A warrant of seizure and detention has been issued against the shipment for violating Section 118(g), Section 119(d), and Section 1113 paragraphs (f), (i), and (l) of RA 10863 (Customs Modernization and Tariff Act), in relation to RA 9165.
On Monday, the BOC said it intercepted some P29.38 million worth of suspected marijuana and kush oil concealed in two large boxes at the Manila International Container Port.
The BOC-Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) said the “balikbayan” boxes, the kind used by returning citizens, from Canada were initially declared to contain used household goods and personal belongings consigned to a residence in General Trias, Cavite.
The CIIS said in the report that it received derogatory information about the two balikbayan boxes, which were then immediately processed for inspection. The examination found a total of 20,990 grams of kush and one liter of liquid substance authorities suspected to be kush oil.
The samples of the suspected marijuana were turned over to the PDEA for confirmatory tests.