Government warns anew vs drug syndicates recruiting Pinoys in South America

The embassy in Bolivia warned anew yesterday against the modus operandi of syndicates recruiting Filipinos as drug couriers in South America.

The warning was issued as more Filipinos are being held in prison in countries like Argentina and Bolivia for acting as "mules," trade jargon for drug couriers.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported receiving a report from the embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina that another Filipina was arrested last December by authorities in the province of Cochabamba, south of the Bolivian capital city of La Paz.

The crime of carrying drugs in Bolivia carries a penalty of 25-year imprisonment.

Charge d’affaires Raul Dado has coordinated with Bolivian state attorneys and the honorary consul general in La Paz Juan Carlos Valdivia for the provision of legal counsel for the Filipina, whose name was withheld by the DFA.

Dado said in his report that several other Filipinas are in prison in Argentina and Bolivia for being drug couriers.

Dire economic need coupled with indiscretion and sometimes coercion lure Filipinas to work for regional drug lords.

The embassy reported the recurring pattern of syndicate operations with Filipinas recruited as couriers for a huge fee.

According to the Filipina victim in Bolivia, she was recruited by unnamed persons in Manila as fruit picker bound for Australia by way of Bangkok. Once in Bangkok, she was kept in a house for days and told by African traffickers, who operate in the city, to proceed to South America via Hong Kong and Johannesburg.

The Filipina then entered South America through Lima, Peru and traveled to Sao Paolo, Brazil, where she was instructed to wait for a few days. She was told to proceed to Guayaquil, Ecuador, and from there went to Cochabamba, Bolivia where she was given a duffel bag and told to proceed by bus and meet her contact farther south in the city of Sta. Cruz dela Sierra, Bolivia’s commercial center.

Bolivian police arrested the Filipina on the bus on the way to Sta. Cruz de la Sierra, with two kilos of cocaine paste.

She told embassy officials that there are many Filipinas waiting in Bangkok for their turn to carry drugs.

"The cycle of operations can be stopped by cutting off the recruiting and staging area of that city," she told the officials.