New Smuggling MO: Liquefied Cocaine

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

Congressman Pleads Guilty for Drug Trafficking

ILOCOS SUR

Congressman Ronald V. Singson plead guilty on 31 January 2011, admitting before the District Court in Wan Chai to the drug trafficking case filed against him at the Tsuen Wan Magistracy Courts after  his arrest on 11 July 2010. Hong Kong police nabbed him at the Hong Kong Kok International Airport for carrying 26.1 grams of cocaine and two tablets of diazepam (Valium) on a flight from Manila. In Hong Kong, trafficking a dangerous drug carries a maximum penalt of life imprisonment and a fine of HK$5 million ($644,000).

Singson, son of Ilocos Sur Governor Chavit Singson, admitted he started using cocaine in 2004, and since 2010, he has been smoking up to four to five grams of cocaine daily. The cocaine recovered from him was supposedly for personal use and not for selling.

THE SENTENCE
Wang Chai (Hong Kong) District Court Judge Joseph Yau sentenced Singson to one year and six months in prison for illegal drug possession. Yau took into account Singson's guilty plea, previous good character, clear criminal record, and his lack of plan to re-sell the drugs.

The Singson family decided not to appeal the case to a higher court out of prudence. A loss in a higher court might result to a longer sentence.

RESIGNATION
In a one-page resignation letter, dated 28 February, Singson let go of his post as representative of Ilocos Sur. Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. received the letter from the elder Singson, Ilocos Sur Governor Luis "Chavit" Singson on 1 March 2011.

In keeping with the time-honored tradition of this August COngress to be ever vigilant that all who work in its corridors or sit in its various sessions must come with clean hands, clean minds, and clean hearts, I have come to the painful decision to tender my resignation as a member of the 15th Congress, went a part of his letter.

Sources

Ben Rosario: "Singson resigns," Manila Bulletin 1 March 2011
Henry Omaga Diaz: "Singson sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison," ABS-CBN News 24 February 2011
Sunstar News Exchange: "Lawmaker pleads guilty to drug raps," Sunnex 31 January 2011