P43.7 million drugs seized at NAIA

MANILA, Philippines — Eight abandoned inbound parcels containing suspected illegal drugs worth P43.7 million were intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on Friday.

According to the Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group, the parcels were shipped from Mexico, Canada, India, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Malaysia and Belgium and arrived at the NAIA Central Mail Exchange Center in Pasay for inspection.

The parcels were addressed to recipients in Cavite, Tarlac and Laguna.

Authorities said the substances were initially detected during cargo X-ray screening by the Bureau of Customs, followed by K-9 paneling by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the subsequent manual inspection.

The recovered substances included 5,222 grams of shabu, 261 grams of cocaine, 482 ecstasy tablets, 1,047 grams of marijuana kush and 1,001 grams of ketamine.

The shabu, cocaine and ecstasy were valued at P37.7 million while the marijuana kush and ketamine had a combined street value of P6.05 million.

Members of the NAIA inter-agency drug interdiction task group will turn over the seized substances to the PDEA national office in Quezon City for proper disposition.

Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno and the PNP-Aviation Security Group lauded the discovery and seizure of the illegal drugs.