PDEA head: Magnetic lifters held P11B ‘shabu’

PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino. INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The four magnetic lifters found in Cavite could have contained P11-billion worth of “shabu” after the metal cylinders were weighed again, the chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said Thursday.

Director General Aaron Aquino said the PDEA put the empty lifters on a truck that had a similar weight with that on which they were mounted during shipment and weighed them. The PDEA then compared its weight with the one declared on its bill of lading when they arrived in Manila.

He said that the magnetic lifters, electric cables, power supply, and other accessories originally in the container were included in the weigh-in.

“Tinimbang namin lahat iyan. It turned out ang lamang nila is 1.6 tons (We weighed all of it. It turned out that the difference between is 1.6 tons),” Aquino told reporters.

Aquino said that the PDEA speculated that the difference of 1.6 tons was the weight of the shabu contained inside. It was 600 kilos more than the one ton that the agency earlier claimed was in the lifters.

At a street price of P6,800 per kilo, the PDEA said the total price of the purported shabu smuggled through Customs went up to P11 billion from the first claim of P6.8 billion.

“Ang tingin ko dahil iyon ang palulusutin nila, pinuno na nila nang pinuno (My theory is they really filled the container since they will smuggle the drugs inside),” he said.

Aquino was referring to the four magnetic lifters seized in August, days after two other magnetic lifters that contained P4.3 billion worth of illegal drugs were intercepted at the Manila International Container Port. /cbb