Around P10 million worth of heroin was found inside two pairs of shoes left behind at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, authorities said on Wednesday.
The Manila International Airport Authority said the discovery was made by personnel of the Lost and Found Section as they were sorting out items at the Terminal 1 warehouse on Monday.
The MIAA said the personnel found a black pair of Clark Active Air shoes “suspiciously heavy,” cut open the soles and found 1,000 grams of a “yellow powderlike substance” inside–500 grams in each shoe.
The MIAA said another kilogram of that same substance was discovered inside another pair of unclaimed brown Clark Active Air shoes found inside a box.
According to the MIAA, in both cases, the substance was “carefully wrapped” inside a “dark plastic material shaped like the bottom of the shoe.”
“These were placed inside the soles of the shoes, which were then sewn carefully back together,” the MIAA said.
It said both pairs of shoes were turned over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, which confirmed the substance to be heroin.
One kilogram of heroin reportedly has a street value of P5 million.
“The airport authority is one with the PDEA in preventing the spread of illegal substances,” MIAA general manager Jose Angel Honrado assured the public as he noted that “stringent measures” were in place to “check all items and baggage entering the terminals.”
He said security personnel at NAIA were “always on heightened alert in scrutinizing items…” “(This is) considering that drug traffickers are utilizing innovative ways to transport dangerous substances,” Honrado said.
The MIAA said an investigation was ongoing to determine where exactly the two pairs of shoes were found and when these were turned over to the lost and found section of Terminal 1. Kristine Felisse Mangunay, Philippine Daily Inquirer