BoC-PDEA team nets P20m in cocaine, fuel

n By VITO BARCELO

GOVERNMENT operatives have seized illegal drugs and smuggled diesel worth more than P20 million in separate operations in Bataan and Pampanga provinces.

Elements of the Bureau of Customs

Anti-Illegal Drugs Task Force (CAIDTF) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), also arrested a passenger carrying more than P18 million worth of cocaine inside his luggage at the Clark

International Airport.

The arrest of the passenger, a Surinamese, and seizure of the cocaine was based on the information from Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) that a suspected drug mule would be arriving in the Philippines via an Emirates airline

The foreigner, whose name was withheld pending investigations, was nabbed upon arrival at Clark from Dubai via flight EK338. His luggage underwent X-ray inspection, K9 sniffing, and rigid physical examination, resulting in the discovery of 3,468 grams of white powdered substance suspected to be cocaine. The substance was concealed in 30 vacuum-sealed transparent plastic bags wrapped in mesh cloth and blue carbon paper. Meanwhile, the BOC- Enforcement and Security Service (ESS) seized one a truck and a trailer carrying 40 liters of diesel at Seafront Shipyard and Port Terminal Services Corporation in Barangay Lucanin, Mariveles, Bataan.