Drug lords now pose as importers

Local drug dealers now directly obtain their supply from abroad by posing as legitimate importers, a ranking anti-drug official of the Western Police District (WPD) revealed.

Chief Inspector Jose Mario Espino, head of the WPD’s Drug Enforcement Group, said his men are now monitoring suspected drug dealers who frequently go abroad for "business purposes."

According to Espino, the recent successive discovery of drug shipments at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport has proven true the intelligence reports they’ve gathered that drug dealers are now going to legitimate cargo handlers in bringing their supply into the country.

He added that drug dealers now find it more risky to procure drugs from their contacts in Hong Kong triads following the exposé of former secret agent Mary Ong alias Rosebud.

Ong, who is known as Rosebud, has revealed how triads operate with the help of certain officials of the Philippine National Police.

Espino said big-time drug dealers now pose as legitimate businessmen when they go to Hong Kong, China or Bangkok to buy one to 50 kilos of shabu, an illegal stimulant.

These drug dealers, he said, then pack their supply and ship them with legitimate cargoes such as clothes, jewelry, ceramics, plastic toys, shoes and decors which are consigned to fictitious names.

Espino added that drug dealers often bribe their way through Customs for the release of their shipment. When these dealers have established a rapport with Customs officials, their illegal cargoes are no longer made to pass through the required inspection.

"This is the reason why two large shipments of shabu hidden beneath imported cargoes were discovered at the NAIA recently," he said adding that the drug dealer involved in the shipment may have failed to call his Customs "contact" about his incoming contraband.

Intelligence reports cited by Espino revealed that neophyte drug pushers who do not have connections in China or Hong Kong now just check-in in one hotel in Manila to get their supply.

There, these greenhorn criminals reportedly get their shabu neatly wrapped in innocuous packages.