More shabu found in sandals’ soles

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – Anti-narcotics agents no longer look innocently at the soles of a pair of sandals.

For good reason. Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives in Western Visayas, in their biggest haul to date, seized here on Monday shabu worth about P7 million placed in plastic sachets and stuffed into the soles of 10 pairs of sandals.

Earlier, PDEA agents in Cebu City arrested a mother and daughter after they picked up a parcel containing 10 pairs of sandals with shabu also stuffed in the soles. The illegal drugs weighed a kilo and valued at P8 million.

“So far this is the biggest illegal drug supply we have seized in the region,” PDEA-Western Visayas director Paul Ledesma said of the Bacolod haul.

The operation started with a test buy for P500 worth of shabu from suspect Edgardo Justo, 36.

After the deal was completed, PDEA agents pounced on Justo and searched his Isuzu D-Max pickup truck where they found the pairs of sandals with shabu in the soles.

Justo was earlier monitored to have claimed a package believed containing the pairs of sandals.

The sachets of shabu were covered with carbon paper, and Ledesma said dealers do this so the illegal drugs could not be detected by X-ray or scanning machines during inspections at courier firms. – With Bryner Diaz, Marchel Espina/Freeman