Dog food parcel at NAIA turns out to be P68-million ecstasy

A parcel that was declared as dog and cat food turned out to be over 40,000 tablets of the party drug ecstasy worth almost P70 million and was promptly seized at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

According to Marisol Abdurahman's report on "24 Oras," the drug shipment was said to have been sent from The Netherlands and was reportedly for distribution mostly in the National Capital Region.

"Dumaan sa x-ray ng customs and the Customs nakita nila na non-organic yung laman ng parcel. Pag non-organic sa x-ray either drugs or ecstasy po yung laman po," PNP-Aviation Security Group spokesperson Police Captain Jennifer Batingan said.

(It went through the x-ray, and Customs saw that the contents of the parcel were non-organic. If the x-ray found that it was non-organic, it's either drugs or ecstasy.) 

The consignee and three other persons who went to claim the parcel have been arrested.

They are facing a complaint for violating Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

The suspects have yet to make a statement regarding the incident.

This is not the first time that ecstasy has been intercepted at the NAIA cargo terminal.

Last year, about P33 million worth of ecstasy was seized.

According to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), there were 40,200 pieces of ecstasy with a value of P68 million.

"We confirmed through our K9 and itong field test saka laboratory test. So far isa ito sa malaking seizure natin sa ecstasy sa PDEA," said Colonel Emerson Rosales, RD-PDEA, National Capital Region. 

(We confirmed through our K9, and this field and laboratory test. So far, this is one of our biggest ecstasy seizures in PDEA.)