'Mexico drug cartel taps Zambo for Malaysian market'

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines  - A senior police official confirmed here Monday the huge shipment of methamphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as shabu, intercepted at the Zamboanga International Airport (ZIA), was part of the haul of the drug cartel from Mexico to the Philippines.

Senior Superintendent Angelito Casimiro, City Police Director, made the disclosure Monday when asked if the group of fugitive police officer PO2 Pon Mohammad Mansul and Margani Samla alias Bin Laden, considered to be top drug traffickers, is being supported by a bigger group.

Mansul was arrested by the combined elements of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Presidential Anti-Organized Crimes Commission (PAOCC), and Philippine Center for Transnational Crime (PCTC) and four others in Las Piñas City, while Samla who eluded a bloody raid in 2012 was captured in an island off Basilan.

He said the tactical operation conducted against the group of Samla reduced tremendously the drug operation of the drug syndicate in this city.

Casimiro said the group is part of the East Asia drug ring. “So the groups that operate in Western Mindanao is linked to the East Asia drug ring.”

But Casimiro said the kilos of shabu intercepted at the airport in this city were intended for Malaysia shipment and this city was being utilized as the transshipment point.

“With the coming of cartels as far as Mexico to the Philippines,  we have seen kilos of kilos of shabu being intercepted at the Zamboanga International Airport going to Tawi-Tawi and we believe that drugs will end up in Malaysia,” Casimiro said.

Casimiro said Malaysia is being targeted as the drug cartel’s  shabu market because the substance commands higher price there than in the Philippines.

Authorities at the airport here have intercepted shipments of shabu concealed on food stuff and goods through forwarders and commercial couriers  used by the drug syndicate since November 2013. - Roel Pareño