MANILA
Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested three suspected drug mules and confiscated 2.25 liters of liquefied cocaine (equivalent to 2.25 kilos of dry cocaine) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). Cocaine exposed toa air will solidify. The items are worth an estimated P10 million. This is the first time that Philippine authorities came across the product.
Those arrested are Than Thuy Ngoc (Vietnamese, 26) and two Filipinos acting as drug mules--Carmelita Daisy Bustamante (Cambodia, Tagum City, 45) and Maria Britannical Maldo Diño (San Francisco Del Monte, Quezon City, 28).
Bustamante was arrested at NAIA Terminal 1 en route to Thailand on board Thai Airways on 11 March 2011. She carried the liquefied cocaine inside two separate shampoo containers. No apparatus in the country can detect the presence of liquefied cocaine. She was supposed to deliver the items to Diño who will deliver it to Ngoc at a hotel in Manila.
According to NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula, "this is a new modus operandi, and this is the first in the country."
More Drug Mules Arrested
On March 17 in Bacoor, Cavite, NBI agents arrested four foreigners for recruiting Filipino drug couriers. They are Dickson Bola Akinbode (Nigeria, 41), Ousmane Diouma Bah (Africa, 44), Bathshegi Thato Lazarus (Botswania, 23), and Ade Femi Adeleke (Africa, 22).
Sources
Macon Araneta: "Liquefied cocaine smuggle foiled," Manila Standard Today 22 March 2011
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