“Cocaine For X’mas Party”

Lapu-Lapu City – The stash of cocaine from a FedEx package from the U.S.A. that were seized earlier by a customs examiner here could be meant for party drugs to some affluent few in Cebu during the just concluded Christmas holidays.

“It could be use most likely by the rich and affluent who could afford the price. For Christmas partying obviously,” Subport of Mactan Collector, Gerardo Campo, told MetroCebu News in Cebuano.

The package was discovered by customs examiner Roy Gonzaga when Gonzaga became suspicious of its actual contents because of its questionable weight as it was declared as sunglasses placed in a box.

When opened in the presence of a FedEx representative a white powdery substance was seen.

“I conducted a physical examination on above mentioned subject on 15 December 2014 and found that the package contained a white powdered like substance,” a portion of Gonzaga’s memorandum to Campo on the incident reads.

According to Gonzaga, the shipment (Air Way Bill No. 805446931114) is consigned to a certain Ms. Jonah Oliverio of 76 V. Ranudo Street, Cebu City and shipped by Kevin Pillez of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

It actually arrived last December 11 and Gonzaga proceeded to have it examined when Oliverio did not surfaced to claim the package. It weighed 57.6 grams, actually placed inside an orange colored canister for a USA made junk food wrapped in two white t-shirts which was also wrapped in a cellophane outside.

Gonzaga then recommended that the same be further examined by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) where it confirmed to be cocaine.

PDEA resident chemists conducted the examination and testing along with SA-1 Jojit Dela Cruz on the Customs Task Force against illegal drugs and controlled substances.

PDEA Central Visayas Director Jeffrey Bangsa supervised the testing in the presence of Collector Campo, Mactan Customs Intelligence and Investigation Services Chief Constancio Ecarma and Customs police Mactan sector commander Lt. Reynaldo Lascota, among others.

Gen. (ret.) Roberto Almadin, the Port of Cebu district collector of customs already issued a Warrant of Seizure and Detention on the package in violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 and the Tariff of Customs Code of the Philippines.

Coll. Campo revealed that the PDEA is now tracking the whereabouts of Oliverio and if warranted would file the case against the said individual.

In September 2011, a Kenyan woman, Asha Atieno Ogutu, was also apprehended by the National Bureau of Investigation in coordination with the Subport of Mactan when it was discovered that the foreigner had concealed three kilos of cocaine in her checked-in trolley bag. The suspect took a flight from Doha, Qatar.

Customs examiner Calvin Bonaobra found the drugs tucked in a plywood backboard in the outer lining of the luggage.

K-9 dogs initially detected the drugs which prompted Bonaobra to examine it in the presence of NBI Cebu agents who got a tip on the drug haul from their counterparts in Metro Manila.

Ogutu has been subsequently convicted by the court and is now serving a life sentence in jail.

The NBI agents theorized that Ogutu was just a courier/ mule tapped by an international drug syndicate since the Kenyan had no money in her pocket when apprehended prompting the suspicion that somebody would pick her up in the airport.

PDEA has categorized cocaine, along with the pill ecstasy and shabu as the three leading so-called party drugs that has gained notoriety in the rich and affluents in the country.