Over 1000 tablets of party drugs Ecstasy and Ketamine were seized during a routine inventory of abandoned parcels at the Central Mail Exchange Center (CMEC), the Bureau of Customs (BoC) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) said on Friday.
The BoC-NAIA said the Ecstasy tablets and Ketamine were sent through parcels from the Netherlands and Germany bearing no shipper details.
It was consigned to individuals from Caloocan, Mandaluyong, Bulacan, and Davao.
According to Port of NAIA, the parcel were initially tagged suspicious by the X-ray Inspection Project (XIP-NAIA) personnel which the Customs later found tablets in different colors and a white crystalline substance.
Customs authorities said the 1,115 Ecstasy tablets and the 26.4 grams of Ketamine has an aggregate value of P2,027,800.
The party drugs were turned over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Angency (PDEA) after chemical laboratory test which confirmed that they were illegal drugs.
Customs statistic showed that smuggling attempts of Ecstasy at NAIA increased from 14 parcels seized in 2020 to 23 parcels seized in 2021 or 60 percentage increase in datainterception.
NAIA Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group commander Gerald Javier said "the increasing number of Ecstasy seizures is an indicator that there is a demand of such product in our country.
He, however , vowed that they will continue to be vigilant in intercepting these illegal drugs.
Tags: #ecstacyandketamine, #bureauofcustomsinterceptspartydrugs, #centralmailexchangecenter, #ninoyaquinointernationalairport