Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Customs conduct an inventory of the nearly P20 million worth of marijuana plants and seedlings found to have been smuggled from Thailand.
PDEA, CUSTOMS AGENTS FOIL HUGE MJ SMUGGLING TRY
JOINT agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Customs have foiled an attempt to smuggle an estimated P19.5 million worth of dried marijuana leaves from Thailand week, officials announced yesterday.
This after officers from the PDEA Seaport Interdiction Unit, the BoC and the Manila District Police discovered two ‘balikbayan’ boxes containing the drugs at the Container Freight Station 3 of the Manila International Container Port in Tondo, Manila at around 11:30 a.m. last Wednesday.
A report to PDEA chair, Director General Moro Virgilio M. Lazo said that the two ‘balikbayan’ boxes yielded a container drug loaded with 13 kilos of dried cannabis valued at P15.6 million; three kilos of marijuana leaves concealed in a bedsheet/beddings and valued at P3.6 million; and three box of cereals found loaded with 250 grams of Kush, a high-marijuana derivative worth P300,000.
No arrests have been made as of press time although the PDEA and the BoC are still looking at the records of the shipment to identify the person/s who sent the prohibited substances to Manila.
Samples of the recovered drugs were submitted to the PDEA Laboratory Service for qualitative and quantitative examination, said Lazo.
The two ‘balikbayan’ boxes marked ‘Lawin Balik Bayan Box’ were sent to Manila by a purported resident of Cordillera region. The shipper of the drug contraband will be facing non-bailable charges for violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, said Director General Lazo.
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