BI: Mother, daughter nabbed for smuggling P76 million cocaine

Singaporean mother and daughter smuggling drugs arrested in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on September 27, 2023. Photo from the Bureau of Immigration.

MANILA, Philippines — A Singaporean mother-daughter duo smuggling illegal drugs was intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Friday.

According to the BI, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) arrested Siti Aishah Binte Awang and Nur Alaviyah Binte Hanaffe on September 27 for smuggling P76,108,000 worth of cocaine that totaled more or less 14,360 grams.

The BI said that six cookie tin cans and five cylindrical chip cans containing 564 pellets of cocaine were discovered in the suspects’ luggage.

As shared by the bureau, the two attempted to go to Hong Kong from Doha, Qatar, via the Philippines when the anti-terrorist group (ATG) detected suspicious travel patterns in their history.

“We received information about a suspect from international counterparts, and we observed that she would come in and out of the country in several instances and have noted suspicious travels,” said ATG head Bienvenido Castillo III in a press release from the bureau.

“We discovered another individual with the exact same patterns. Hence we immediately coordinated the matter with the members of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Drug Interdiction Task Group,” he added.

The bureau said that after alerting the task group, the Bureau of Customs, and the PDEA, Awang and Hannafe were immediately arrested.

The BI said the two are now under the custody of PDEA for filing charges against them.

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