“The arrest of nine Filipinos in Guangdong province and Beijing in a span of three weeks is nothing less than alarming,” she said in her report to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Nine Filipino women were arrested in Guangdong province and Beijing from December 24 last year to January 15 this year for alleged drug trafficking, the Philippine embassy in China said Wednesday.
This brings to 22 the number of Filipinas who have been detained or investigated in China for alleged drug smuggling from February 2007 to January 2008, leading Philippine Ambassador to China Sonia Brady to call the situation “alarming” as she warned Filipinas against being lured by drug syndicates into acting as couriers.
“The embassy earnestly hopes our kababayans [compatriots] would heed the Philippine government’s warnings and not allow themselves to be used as ‘drug couriers’ by unscrupulous ‘friends’ working for syndicates involved in drug trafficking into China,” her report said.
All 22 arrested Filipinos claimed they were requested to carry the “parcels” by “friends” they met at transit points such as Bangkok (Thailand), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Vientiane (Laos), Macau (China), and Katmandu (Nepal).
They said these so-called friends gave them tickets to travel to China with promises of payment upon delivery of the parcel to a contact. They were arrested in different areas in China identified as “gateways” for drug trafficking.
Brady said Chinese laws penalize the trafficking of 50 grams or more of highly dangerous drugs, including heroin, with a prison sentence ranging from 15 years to life, or death.
“China strictly imposes tough penalties against persons caught in possession of prohibited or dangerous drugs. They face maximum sentences ranging from life imprisonment to death,” she said.
Among those recently arrested was a Filipina from Northern Luzon who was apprehended on arrival in China from Kuala Lumpur on December 24, 2007 with 800 grams of heroin in 78 capsules found on her person.
She told embassy officials she was offered $5,000 by an African friend of her Nigerian boyfriend to transport 1,000 grams of heroin to Guangzhou through Beijing.
Initially, she was given $700 travel allowance, with the balance to be paid upon turnover of the drugs to an unidentified person in Guangzhou. Before boarding the plane in Kuala Lumpur, she swallowed the capsule-enclosed heroin.
She was about to purchase her onward plane ticket to Guangzhou when Beijing airport authorities apprehended her.
Even as she vehemently denied the accusations, a body search yielded some of the capsules and she admitted to carrying more drugs in her person.
“I urge Filipinos to resist any offer of money from these syndicates for carrying parcels with prohibited drugs to China,” Brady emphasized.
“We will work closely with our regional partners pursuant to bilateral and multilateral mechanisms which address this growing problem as these drug syndicates apparently have a wide network operating in various parts of Asia,” she added.
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