PDEA asks courier firms to help in war vs drugs

PDEA Director Aaron Aquino (File photo by NOY MORCOSO / INQUIRER.net file photo)

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) sought and got the help of courier service firms in preventing the smuggling of narcotics through parcel delivery.

Aaron Aquino, PDEA director general, met with representatives of foreign and domestic mail and cargo firms to discuss with them measures needed to stop the entry of narcotics through the mail or package delivery service.

Aquino said he called for the meeting following recent attempts to smuggle into the country “shabu” (crystal meth), cocaine and ecstasy concealed in packages for delivery by the couri

er firms.

He said that since 2013, the PDEA had conducted 102 mail and parcel interdiction operations, through random K-9 sweeps and parcel screening in cargo terminals nationwide.

Arrests of consignees

These resulted in the seizure of millions of pesos worth of drugs and the arrest of package consignees, according to Aquino.

He said at the meeting between the PDEA and courier firms’ representatives that several measures were proposed to prevent the use of parcel for drug smuggling.

These included the use of drug-sniffing dogs and X-ray machines, according to Aquino.

PDEA, he said, planned to acquire 100 more dogs next year to add to its K-9 force of 52 dogs and 57 handlers nationwide.

Aquino also asked courier service companies to allot a secure room for PDEA agents to inspect parcels suspected of containing narcotics. “This would prevent security breaches and inside jobs,” he said.

Drug syndicates, said Aquino, use mail and parcel delivery services to smuggle narcotics because they believed these were the “safest way to move illegal drugs covertly.”

Through courier services and mail, he said, drug traffickers could use fictitious names “to mislead authorities.”