Customs officers and anti-drug agents intercepted 15 boxes from Canada holding high-grade marijuana and methamphetamine at a warehouse in Pasay City.[1] The boxes had come from Toronto.[2] They were declared as personal effects.[2] A customs X-ray screening flagged suspicious images in the shipment.[1] An alert order was issued and officers carried out a 100% physical examination of the packages.[3]
One box held about 4,746 grams of high-grade marijuana, known locally as kush, which the Bureau of Customs valued at P7.119 million.[1] Six boxes held 28 cans with about 28,324 grams of shabu, the local name for methamphetamine hydrochloride, which customs valued at P192.603 million.[1] Officers also found 20 towels and 20 duvets that the bureau suspected held liquid methamphetamine.[1] Laboratory tests on samples of the marijuana, the shabu and the liquid methamphetamine were positive for cannabis and methamphetamine hydrochloride.[3] The bureau estimated the whole shipment’s value at P199.72 million.[2]
The Bureau of Customs office at NAIA said a deeper investigation was continuing before charges could be filed against those involved.[2] The inspection was carried out with PDEA, the customs intelligence and investigation service, the customs anti-illegal drug task force, the enforcement and security service, the X-ray project and the NAIA inter-agency drug interdiction task group.[1] Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno said better technology, sharper intelligence and coordination with partner agencies were improving the bureau’s ability to stop such shipments before they reached communities.[3]