Rising number of RP drug mules ‘alarming’

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Written by Estrella Torres Reporter for Business Mirror

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

AN increasing number of Filipinas are now acting as “mules” or couriers in the illegal-drug trade. This was revealed by the Philippine Embassy in Vietnam in a report made to the Department of Foreign Affairs. In its report, the embassy in Hanoi said drug-trafficking syndicates often lure Filipinas to act as mules with the promise of an unusually high pay. Among the steps include: 1. Upon the direction by a Nigerian drug syndicate, a Filipino contact in China gives or promises an unsuspecting Filipina a job that involves a lot of traveling, with a salary of $2,000 per trip. The contact buys the Filipina’s plane ticket for the trip from the Philippines to China via Vietnam, where the unsuspecting Filipina is instructed to obtain a Chinese visa. 2. The contact, now supposedly a “benefactor,” asks the Filipina a favor, which involves bringing to China a present or an item from a friend based in Cambodia. The unsuspecting Filipina, thinking that she is doing her “benefactor” a favor, agrees and exits Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam, for Phnom Penh, Cambodia, by bus. 3. From Cambodia, the unsuspecting Filipina, now a “mule,” goes back to HCMC to take a direct flight to China, or proceeds to Hanoi to take a bus trip to Manning, China. Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Eduardo Malaya said most of the death-penalty cases involving Filipinos abroad were due to drug-related offenses, including those in mainland China. At least 111 Filipinos, most of them women, were arrested for drug-related offenses in China, Hong Kong and Macau in 2008. “This was a 594-percent increase compared [with] the 16 Filipinos arrested in 2007,” said Malaya in a statement on Wednesday. Of those arrested in 2007 and 2008, 22 were sentenced with the death penalty, 12 were meted life sentences, while 11 received prison sentences of 15 to 16 years. “The Department of Foreign Affairs reiterates its warning to all Filipinos traveling abroad to refrain from engaging in drug-smuggling activities and not to accept packages from other people without knowing the contents of the said packages,” said Malaya. The embassy report from Hanoi said the modus operandi of an illegal-drugs syndicate was exposed by a Filipina victim who sought assistance after she was stranded in Vietnam from Cambodia. The Filipina failed to bring with her the package for delivery to China, as the Nigerian contact in Cambodia had a miscommunication with the Filipina and the Nigerian contacts in China, said the report. The Filipina victim, who was used as a drug mule, said the package was a pair of slippers with bulging soles, which she was directed to bring in a bag. The Philippine Embassy in Beijing has also issued similar warnings to Filipinos not to allow themselves to be used as drug couriers of huge syndicates of illegal drugs. The People’s Republic of China imposes harsh penalties on persons caught in possession of or trafficking in prohibited or dangerous drugs. For instance, trafficking 50 grams or more of prohibited drugs in mainland China may be punishable by 15 years in prison, life imprisonment or even the death penalty. Malaya explained that most of the victims were banking on the job promised them in China and were not fully aware of the contents of the package they were directed to bring to their benefactor. The embassy in Hanoi said that three Filipinas traveled to HCMC from Manila because of an offer by a Nigerian national for these women to “deliver” five to 10 pieces of T-shirts from HCMC to China for a fee of $500 to $600 per person. “The T-shirts could have been immersed in liquefied illegal drugs and then dried before delivery,” said the report.