Memory cards concealed in tin cans seized at NAIA

MANILA, Philippines—Agents of the Bureau of Customs at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport seized on Wednesday night some P7 million worth of flash memory cards from a Chinese national who tried to smuggle the items by hiding them inside infant formula tin cans.

Customs’ deputy collector for passenger services Thess Roque said some 6,500 pieces of assorted flash memory cards stashed inside powdered milk cans were seized from a certain Jun Zhu, who arrived Wednesday aboard Cathay Pacific flight CX919 from Hong Kong.

Roque said the alleged smuggled items were discovered by Customs examiner Nicolas Tristan Hinayon.

In his report to Roque, Hinayon said he became suspicious of the suspect, whom he saw approaching from the other end of the baggage claim area even though there were examiners right in front of the Cathay baggage carrousel.

Upon inspection of the suspect’s two huge bags, Hinayon said he became more suspicious because the foreign national had three cans of baby formula although he was traveling alone.

Hinayon’s suspicion was proved correct when he saw thousands of assorted memory cards, instead of powdered milk, inside the cans.

A thorough inventory of the items showed that there were 6,500 pieces of assorted memory cards that included Micro SD cards, M2 memory cards, and Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo cards.

The customs examiner was forced to issue a Held Baggage Receipt for the seizure of the cards on the grounds of failure to declare and fraudulent concealment.

After the verification and accounting of the seized items, a warrant of seizure and detention for the memory cards was issued apparently for violation of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines.

“He (the suspect) could not present any documents of registration or declaration of the items,” Roque said, adding that somebody claiming to be the owner of the memory cards had already surfaced.

“There are certain [processes] to be made, investigation is now ongoing,” she added.