BOC nearly botches P50-million drug bust

MANILA, Philippines - A German Customs agent sent here to help the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency bust an international drugs syndicate almost failed to complete his mission after a Customs official stopped him at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for carrying P50 million worth of cocaine.

The German agent was almost exposed after a Customs official alerted the media about the arrest. Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales was also informed.

“He was supposed to have been allowed to pass through so that he could deliver the cocaine to the person here in the Philippines,” a source said.

After the German agent was turned over to the PDEA, he was allowed to proceed with his mission to deliver the five kilos of cocaine to a building in Mandaluyong.

Authorities later arrested Michael Lee, who received the cocaine delivery.

Fernandino Tuason, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Division intelligence chief, said PDEA, along with the Bureau of Customs and the Philippine National Police conducted the entrapment in cooperation with the Customs Investigation Office-Frankfurt Department of Drugs in Germany.

Customs insiders said German customs officials were irked when the BOC almost exposed its agent.

Filipino and German officials have agreed that the German agent who posed as a drug trafficker would be allowed to pass through Customs at NAIA without any hitches last Wednesday.

However, the well-planned operation of Philippine and German law enforcement agencies against an international drug syndicate was almost exposed when the Customs official arrested the German agent.

“The German Customs even described that the Customs in the Philippines was ‘lousy,’” an insider said.

“It was a government-to-government operation that would have gone smoothly if one of the agency officials did not expose the operation prematurely. The German agent had papers that legalized him carrying the cocaine.”   – Evelyn Macairan