GOVERNMENT agents on Friday seized P10 million worth of smuggled shabu and kush weeds at the Federal Express warehouse near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, an official said.
Customs collector Carmelita Talusan said her men intercepted 2,066 grams or 2.06 kilos of shabu and 127.60 grams of kush weeds shipped separately in two concealed boxes on different dates from California.
She made her statement even as the Justice department on Friday dumped the bid of Cebu-based businessman Peter Lim to stop the new preliminary investigation into the drug case filed against him and other suspects.
In a resolution, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra denied Lim’s appeal to stop the new Justice department panel from proceeding with the new preliminary investigation on the drug charges filed against him, self-confessed drug trafficker Kerwin Espinosa, convicted drug lord Peter Co and several others.
“Movant [Lim] has failed to show any violation of his rights, much less his right to a speedy disposition of his case,” Guevarra said in his resolution.
Documents showed that the packages seized at the warehouse were declared as toys and consigned to a Savannah Valdez of General Trias, Cavite, and Emmer Soncruz Medina of Quezon City and arrived on March 28, 2018, and April 18, 2018, respectively.
Talusan said both boxes underwent X-ray scanning and rigid inspection after no one claimed them. Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña reminded airport’s Customs’ rank and file that their task was not only to collect and hit the bureau’s revenue target but also “to intensify Customs’ campaign against the smuggling of illegal goods in the country.”
Last month, a female claimant was arrested when she picked up a package containing 962 Ecstasy tablets at the Central Mail Exchange Center in Pasay City.
Monica Santos of Morato, Quezon City, was claiming the parcel declared as a photo album when she was nabbed by Customs authorities.
The party drugs, which were sent by a certain Samson Santos from The Netherlands, weighed some 1.3 kilos and had a street value of more than P14 million.
Manila International Airport Authority general manager Eddie Monreal said his agency and the Customs bureau heightened their vigilance in the campaign against illegal drug trafficking in a bid to discourage international and local drug syndicates from using the Philippines as a transshipment point.