P3-M Ecstasy tablets seized at NAIA

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has seized 200 tablets of the party drug Ecstasy, with a street value of P3 million, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), officials said yesterday.

BOC Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon and NAIA Customs district collector Ed Macabeo said the tablets, which weighed around 500 grams, were declared as “vitamins” and consigned to Darwin Bernandino of Novaliches, Quezon City.

The tablets were in two parcels sent by Legion Ltd. of Germany. They arrived at the Central Mail Exchange Center on May 7.

Macabeo said a drug-sniffing dog reacted right after scanning the parcels. The Customs Anti-Illegal Drug Task Force waited for the consignee to claim the parcels but the consignee failed to do so.

The CMEC team said the parcels bore two “badges of fraud:” they came from Germany, which is not a common source of vitamins, and are too heavy for personal consumption.

Faeldon, during yesterday’s press conference, called on drug traffickers to “stop using the facilities of the government. We are operating every day, monitoring your movement and in two months we will identify big-time smugglers and definitely file charges against them.”