More women joining illegal drug trade - PDEA

MANILA, Philippines - More and more women are being involved in the trade in illegal drugs, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said yesterday.

PDEA director general Jose Gutierrez Jr. said that since January , a total of 674 women were apprehended by operatives either through drug busts or the enforcement of search warrants.

Gutierrez said this figure comprises 13.3 percent of the 5,062 persons arrested arrested by the agency.

“The series of arrests of female drug personalities, both local and foreign nationals, indicates that the illegal drug trade is no longer a man’s world,” Gutierrez said in a statement.

“Women are fast becoming key players in the illegal drug business. Because women are less prone to suspicion by law enforcers, drug syndicates have exploited this inherent characteristic,” he added.

According to the agency, the most recent was the arrest of three alleged female drug dealers: a mother-daughter tandem together with their purported supplier in Iligan City on Sept. 27: Lucita and Jennifer Alperito, and Anisah Macadato.

Lucita, a 56-year-old widow, and her daughter Jenifer, 36, were apprehended during a drug bust operation conducted by operatives of PDEA Region Office 10 in Saray, Iligan City after they sold one plastic sachet of shabu to a poseur-buyer. PDEA agents found seven more plastic sachets of shabu in various sizes on the women.

In a follow-up operation conducted in Bacayo Mercy Celdran, Iligan City, Macadato, 27, identified as the supplier of the Alperitos, was caught red-handed after delivering two big sachets of shabu to PDEA agents who posed as buyers.

Gutierrez also cited the arrest of a Kenyan woman on Sept. 29, at the Mactan International Airport in Cebu for transporting three kilograms of shabu from Doha, Qatar. 

Ashia Atieno Ogotu, 25, is suspected to be a member of an African drug syndicate.