Customs officials uncovered over P200 million worth of dried marijuana inside balikbayan boxes from Thailand at the Manila International Container Port (MICP).

Verne Enciso, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) director, said that the they found multiple balikbayan boxes containing a combined weight of over 100,000 grams with a total worth of P238.2 million last week.

After the CIIS-MICP issued an alert order against the balikbayan boxes, the CIIS-MICP conducted a full physical examination of the shipment which was witnessed by elements from the Enforcement and Security Service, Customs Anti-Illegal Drug Task Force, Philippine Coast Guard, Environmental Protection and Compliance Division, Office of the District Collector, and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

“With the prompt response of the Office of the District Collector, we were able to apprehend the shipment and process it for a thorough examination. We then found hundreds of kilos of marijuana in a shipment originally declared to be consolidated balikbayan boxes and personal effects,” Enciso said.

The first batch of intercepted shipments were five balikbayan boxes consigned to Gerard Cruz and Erika Cruz containing 126 packages of marijuana with a weight of 65,000 grams and an estimated value of P78 million.

Nex batch is another five balikbayan boxes that were consigned to BKKCHCF SHN and contain 138 packages of marijuana with an estimated weight of 70,000 grams. These were worth more or less P84 million, the BOC said.

Two balikbayan boxes were also found to have 63,500 grams of marijuana with a worth of P76.2 million concealed as food packages and blankets and were consigned to Jonathan and Francis Ayala.

Intelligence Group Deputy Commissioner Juvymax Uy said that the boxes containing marijuana were brought back inside the container which was padlocked and sealed and will be kept by the BOC  until the full inventory and the turnover to PDEA.

“While these groups and individuals regularly come up with an array of concealment methods to smuggle dangerous drugs into our country, the work shown by our agents this past week is one of the many reasons why they will not succeed,” Uy said.

BOC Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio said the operation wouldn’t have been possible without the cooperation of key government agencies and the bureau’s well-placed sources.

“Our partnerships with government agencies, as well as the relationships we have forged with our sources, are crucial to stopping the illicit flow of narcotics before they reach our streets,” Rubio said.

“I want to reassure the public that our BOC officers will remain vigilant against smuggling attempts and dedicated in disrupting the flow of illegal drugs from entering our country and reaching our communities,” he added.

Illicit drugs, including marijuana, are one of the commodities that the Customs’ watch out for to attain the collection target of nearly P1 trillion in revenue this year.

Last month, the bureau recorded a total of P70.601 billion in collections, exceeding the P66.207 billion target and the P63.015 billion recorded in February 2023.