THE recently renewed agreement between the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for close cooperation on illegal drugs operations continue to bear result with the arrest of 5 persons during separate ‘controlled delivery’ operations in Pampanga last week.
Port of Clark district collector, Atty. Ruby M. Alameda, in a report to Comm. Rey Leonardo Guerrero, said two joint BOC-PDEA operations in Lubao, Pampanga, last August 8, 2020, resulted to the arrest of five individuals and the confiscation of ‘Ecstasy’ drugs worth a total of P17 million.
Unknown to the suspects, Alameda said she had already placed on alert the two shipments of the so-called “party drugs” when they arrived at her port last August 7 and August 8, 2020, respectively.
She added the shipments, which came from the Netherlands, were hidden in the false bottoms of a carton box and the other, in a foot massage machine.
The authorities then immediately swung into action after the packages were picked up by the suspects.
Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence (DCI) Ranier Ramiro, told Pinoy Exposé the first controlled delivery operation occurred at a gasoline station in Bgy. San Roque, Dau, Lubao, Pampanga, where some 5,000 pieces of Ecstasy, worth some P8.5 million, were seized by the team led by IA5 Vidal DC Bacolod, PDEA Pampanga chief and, SA1 Bienvenido Lacsamana, Jr, BOC Customs Police-Clark.
Ramiro identified the first four arrrested suspects as:
Joshua Manansala Bautista, 20 and Raphy Serrano Quibuloy, 30, both residents of Maquiapo, Guagua, Pampanga; William Manansala Valencia, 41 and Patrick Pangan Bagang, 35, both residents of Lubao, Pampanga.
Some 30 minutes later, the second controlled delivery, led by PDEA Region 3 director, Christian O. Frivaldo, took place at a hardware store also in Bgy. San Roque, Dau, Lubao, Pampanga, where a female suspect was arrested after yielding another 5,000 pieces of the illegal drugs worth some P8.5 million.
Ramiro identified the arrested suspect as, Katrina Mendoza Legaspi, aka, Charmaine Bacani Valencia, 36, who also hails from Guagua, Pampanga.
The successful joint operations by the BOC and PDEA, with the assistance of the Philippine National Police, increased to P40.5 million the value of Ecstasy confiscated by the bureau in just two days last week.
Last August 10, 2020, the NAIA collection district under Coll. Carmelita ‘Mimel’ Talusan, also confiscated the same drugs from several packages that arrived also from the Netherlands and Belgium at the Central Mail Exchange Center (CMEC) in Pasay City.
Talusan said the confiscated drugs have been valued at P23.5 million.