PDEA chief Aaron Aquino inspects one of four magnetic lifters that contained traces of “shabu” (crystal meth) already emptied by drug traders that smuggled about P6.8 billion of the illegal drug in a Cavite warehouse on Friday. Authorities found the massive steel devices with hollowed parts where the drugs were hidden inside a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez town in a follow-up operation after seizing 500 kilograms of shabu worth P4.3 billion (below) inside two lifters at the international container port in Manila two days earlier. (Photo by EDWIN BACASMAS)
Smugglers have become “bolder” in shipping illegal drugs into the country even as the government continues to intensify its fight against drugs, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Saturday.
“We view the latest reported foreign drug shipment as a sign that big-timer drug manufacturers and smugglers are becoming bolder with a dwindled local supply as they feel the pressure from the government’s campaign against illegal drugs,” Roque said in a statement.
Roque was reacting to a report that P7 billion worth of crystal meth, or shabu, was recently sneaked into local ports.
READ: 1-ton ‘shabu’ slips thru PH ports–PDEA
According to Roque, local law enforcement authorities are already working with the Taiwanese government in investigating the incident.
On Friday, Aaron Aquino, chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, said that about a ton of shabu could now be circulating in the country.
“This is very saddening. P6.8 billion worth of illegal drugs are now circulating anew in our streets,” he said. /atm