The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has confiscated dried marijuana valued at over P158.74 million hidden inside six balikbayan boxes from Thailand.
The BOC said that the 132.288 kilograms of marijuana were found through a physical examination by the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service-Manila International Container Port (CIIS-MICP) on Monday, March 18.
The package was consigned to a certain Mary Gail Quesada and Rainier Quesada through a Marcelo D. Laylo Cargo Forwarders, the BOC reported.
“Sending balikbayan boxes is the simple tradition of Filipinos of giving gifts to their familes and friends, but look how these criminal elements use them to smuggle illegal drugs into our country," BOC Commissioner Bienvenido Y. Rubio said.
"No matter how many times they try, the full utilization of our personnel in shipment monitoring and available resources will foil any smuggling attempt,” he added.
The CIIS-MICP requested an alert order for the shipment last month after receiving derogatory information it contained illegal drugs and other misdeclared and undeclared items.
“Originally, the shipment was declared as consolidated balikbayan boxes and personal effects from Thailand. But we’ve already seen this modus before, so after vetting the information that we received, we immediately went to work to thwart this smuggling activity,” CIIS Director Verne Enciso said.
The first box contained 20 vacuum-sealed packages with 1,009 grams per package, 25 vacuum-sealed packages with 1,047 grams per package in the second box, and 25 vacuum-sealed packages with 1,034 grams per package in the third box.
There were also 20 vacuum-sealed packages with 1,007 grams per package in the fourth box and 20 vacuum-sealed packages with 1,021 grams per package in the fifth box.
In the sixth box, the BOC found 15 vacuum-sealed packages with 1,021 grams of marijuana per package and 16 vacuum-sealed packages with 263 grams of kush cake and cream per package.
The samples were turned over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, while all the six balikbayan boxes were returned to the container for safekeeping.
An assigned Customs examiner, along with the CIIS, Enforcement and Security Service, Customs Anti-Illegal Drug Task Force, Philippine Coast Guard, Environmental Protection and Compliance Division, and PDEA all witnessed the examination of the boxes.
“When an operation stops a potential smuggling activity concerning illegal drugs, it also effectively saves a life. Keeping illegal drugs from our streets is not the work of one agency alone; it must be a combined and coordinated effort that trickles from the leadership down to our agents on the ground,” Intelligence Group Deputy Commissioner Juvymax Uy said.
The consignees, senders, and recipients of the balikbayan boxes will possibly face charges for violating tariff and anti-drugs laws.