Banned drugs concealed in bags of candy seized

Customs personnel at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) confiscated some 48 sachets of suspected prohibited drugs concealed in bags of tamarind candies last Saturday on board a Kuwait Airlines flight from Bangkok.

Some 192 plastic transparent bags with 48 sachets were placed in a brown carton box with four boxes of fresh orchids in the unaccompanied baggage addressed to one Dang Trinidad of Quezon City.

NAIA Customs district collector Ricardo Belmonte said while examiners Melrose Ellego and Sammuel Saed were going through the bags of tamarind candies, they noticed that some of them were bulkier than others.

Ellego and Saed requested Customs intelligence and investigation officers to join them in examining the contents of the said bags. Inside they found sachets of tablets and capsules in different colors.

Joerly Maghari, the facilitator, is now at the custody of Customs police but insisted she doesn’t know anything about the drugs, saying she was just claiming the orchids.

The drugs are now being examined by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. – Rudy Santos