Jeff
04-10-2008, 11:01 AM
The Manila Standard Today
Apr. 9, 2008
Syndicates using Filipinas
By Joyce Pangco Pañares
SHANGHAI—Drug syndicates are continuing to use Filipinas to smuggle illegal drugs into China, and many are getting caught, the Philippine Consulate here has warned.
Consul-General Maria Rowena Sanchez said she continued to receive reports of Filipinos overseas acting as drug couriers for syndicates, and apparently without their knowledge, despite the arrest of nine Filipinas early this year in Beijing and Guangdong for drug smuggling.
Among those caught recently was a Filipina from Northern Luzon who was arrested in China after flying there from Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 24. She was carrying 800 grams of heroin packed in 78 capsules that she had swallowed.
She told the embassy that a friend of her African boyfriend had offered her $5,000 to transport 1,000 grams of the drug to Guangzhou from Beijing.
She was given $700 in travel allowance, with the balance to be paid after she had turned over the heroin to an unidentified person in Guangzhou.
“It is really alarming. That is why we are issuing this warning again to remind our [migrant workers] to be careful and not to trust people who ask them to carry certain parcels,” Sanchez said.
In previous cases, she said, the drug syndicates’ contact people had turned out to be “friends” of the unwitting Filipino workers bound for China.
“So it is better if you check the parcel first or don’t accept it at all,” she said.
People caught trafficking 50 grams or more of heroin and other illegal drugs to China are jailed for 15 years to life or sentenced to death.
“China strictly imposes tough penalties against drug traffickers,” Ambassador to Beijing Sonia Brady said.
Sanchez said the nine Filipinas seized for smuggling drugs were arrested in a span of three weeks, or from Dec. 24, 2007 to Jan. 15, 2008.
She said their arrest brought the number of Filipinas detained or investigated in China for drug smuggling to 22 for the period February 2007 to January 2008 alone.
In almost all cases, the couriers were met by friends in transit points or in cities such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Vientiane, Macau and Katmandu, she said.
They were then given tickets to fly to China and promised payment upon delivery of the drugs to a contact in Guangdong or Beijing.
Remarks:
Our Filipinas are used as pawn in this deadly game. The senate should conduct inquiry how this things happened and identified what are the lapses. Kung may dapat managot bitayin.
Apr. 9, 2008
Syndicates using Filipinas
By Joyce Pangco Pañares
SHANGHAI—Drug syndicates are continuing to use Filipinas to smuggle illegal drugs into China, and many are getting caught, the Philippine Consulate here has warned.
Consul-General Maria Rowena Sanchez said she continued to receive reports of Filipinos overseas acting as drug couriers for syndicates, and apparently without their knowledge, despite the arrest of nine Filipinas early this year in Beijing and Guangdong for drug smuggling.
Among those caught recently was a Filipina from Northern Luzon who was arrested in China after flying there from Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 24. She was carrying 800 grams of heroin packed in 78 capsules that she had swallowed.
She told the embassy that a friend of her African boyfriend had offered her $5,000 to transport 1,000 grams of the drug to Guangzhou from Beijing.
She was given $700 in travel allowance, with the balance to be paid after she had turned over the heroin to an unidentified person in Guangzhou.
“It is really alarming. That is why we are issuing this warning again to remind our [migrant workers] to be careful and not to trust people who ask them to carry certain parcels,” Sanchez said.
In previous cases, she said, the drug syndicates’ contact people had turned out to be “friends” of the unwitting Filipino workers bound for China.
“So it is better if you check the parcel first or don’t accept it at all,” she said.
People caught trafficking 50 grams or more of heroin and other illegal drugs to China are jailed for 15 years to life or sentenced to death.
“China strictly imposes tough penalties against drug traffickers,” Ambassador to Beijing Sonia Brady said.
Sanchez said the nine Filipinas seized for smuggling drugs were arrested in a span of three weeks, or from Dec. 24, 2007 to Jan. 15, 2008.
She said their arrest brought the number of Filipinas detained or investigated in China for drug smuggling to 22 for the period February 2007 to January 2008 alone.
In almost all cases, the couriers were met by friends in transit points or in cities such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Vientiane, Macau and Katmandu, she said.
They were then given tickets to fly to China and promised payment upon delivery of the drugs to a contact in Guangdong or Beijing.
Remarks:
Our Filipinas are used as pawn in this deadly game. The senate should conduct inquiry how this things happened and identified what are the lapses. Kung may dapat managot bitayin.