Anti-narcotics agents seize P8.5M ecstasy in Laguna
GOVERNMENT anti-narcotics agents last week arrested a 23-year-old woman who claimed a package containing an estimated P8.55 million worth of smuggled “party drugs” or ecstasy tablets from a poseur in Sta. Rosa City in Laguna, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Moro Virgilio M. Lazo said Monday.
According to the official, the suspect used a “fake” identification card bearing the consignee’s name when she received the package from an agent in Barangay Dita in Sta. Rosa City.
Members of the Ninoy Aquino Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group (NAIA-DITG), composed of officers from the PDEA, Bureau of Customs (BOC), and the Philippine National Police’s Drug Enforcement Group (PNP-DEG), conducted the successful controlled delivery operation.
The package from France contained six stuffed toys filled with 5,032 pink ecstasy tablets and were found to be positive for the illegal party drug when examined by the PDEA Laboratory Service.
The claimant is now facing charges for violation of Republic Act (RA) 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 in relation to Sections 119 and 1401 of RA 10863 or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.
The drug seizure was made amid the stepped-up effort by the NAIA-DITG to prevent the entry of banned substances into the country as ordered by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr., said BOC Commissioner Yogi Filemon L. Ruiz.
