ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - Airport security personnel intercepted on Tuesday about half a kilogram of shabu concealed in two sound box speakers while being slipped through the Zamboanga International Airport (ZIA) to a plane bound for Sulu.
Joseph Ladip, regional director of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), said the methamphetamine hydrochloride locally known as shabu was detected by the Office for Transportation Office X-ray security personnel as among the cargoes about to be transported by a commercial freight and forwarding courier.
The X-ray personnel immediately alerted the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), the airport police and the PDEA to conduct the thorough inspection on the suspicious baggage that carried the shabu.
Ladip said the shabu was packed in five large transparent plastics and placed inside two soundbox speakers to conceal the contraband.
“Similar modus was applied by the suspects by concealing it with the cargoes except that this time they used sound boxes,” Ladip said.
He said the drug shipment came from Manila but he declined to divulge the names of the shipper and the consignee citing that there is an ongoing operation to track them down.
It will be the fifth time a drug syndicate attempted to slip the shabu through forwarders utilizing foodstuff, coffee packs, milk and appliances.