VP Binay: For Pinoy drug couriers, Dubai is a common stopover


With Philippine authorities moving to stop Filipinos from being used as drug couriers in other countries, drug rings have resorted to having the couriers get their supply outside the Philippines, Vice President Jejomar Binay bared Thursday.

Binay, the presidential adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers' concerns, said this is an obstacle to Philippine government efforts to stop Filipinos from engaging in the illegal drug trade.

“Aalis sila dito sa Pilipinas na malinis sila. Tapos pagdating nila doon sa ibang bansa saka nila kukunin 'yung droga,” he said in an entry on his Facebook page.

He cited information showing that Filipino drug couriers to China usually have stopovers in Dubai, then Hong Kong before proceeding to Shanghai.

Last Wednesday, a Filipina drug courier sentenced to death for bringing in heroin to China was executed. The execution prompted calls from Philippine authorities to Filipinos not to engage in the drug trade.

Meanwhile, Binay said the National Bureau for Investigation and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency are hunting down syndicates involved in recruiting drug couriers in the Philippines. A certain Nigerian in the Philippines had recruited the executed courier, who became a repeat trafficker to China.

“Tinatrabaho yan ngayon ng PDEA at NBI. 'Yung doon sa tatlo, nahuli na nila 'yung recruiter,” Binay said.

He was referring to Mapet Cortez a.k.a. Tita Cacayan, who allegedly recruited Sarah Ordinario-Villanueva, one of the three Filipinos executed in China last year for drug smuggling.

Cortez allegedly misled Villanueva into taking what she thought was an empty suitcase that turned out to be lined with more than four kilos of heroin. — KBK/HS, GMA News

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