Close to a thousand pieces of ecstasy tablets worth P1.6 million were recently found in a shipment of air humidifiers at the Port of Clark, the Bureau of Customs (BoC) said on Friday.
The 988 pieces of ecstasy tablets and some broken pieces were discovered inside a shipment from a certain Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. It arrived at the Port of Clark last September 1 and was declared as an “air humidifier.”
The shipment was subjected to a non-intrusive examination that revealed images of various tablets similar to those that were previously seized.
This prompted Customs officers to conduct physical examination on the shipment which later yielded an air humidifier and 988 pieces of tablets in assorted colors.
Samples were taken for laboratory testing and chemical analysis which confirmed the positive result for the presence of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) or commonly known as “ecstasy,” a dangerous drug listed under R.A. No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
A warrant of seizure and detention was issued on September 2 against the shipment for violation of Sections 118 (g), 119 (d) and 1113 (f), (i) & (l) of R.A. No. 10863, the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) in relation to R.A. No. 9165.
The shipment was already turned over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency for proper disposition, Port of Clark District Collector Ruby Alameda said.
“To date, this is the 18th shipment of illegal drugs that the Port of Clark has seized and in sum, over P34-million worth of prohibited drugs such as marijuana and ecstasy were seized by the port this year,” Alameda added.