BY CALVIN D. CORDOVA
CEBU CITY – Authorities recovered close to P1 million worth of ecstasy tablets that were supposed to be delivered to a resident in Malabuyoc town, southern Cebu.
Personnel of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Central Visayas (PDEA7) confiscated 194 ecstasy tablets and at least 151 grams of raw ingredients for the potent party drug worth P843,200.
The PDEA 7 conducted a controlled delivery operation but the supposed recipient of the shipment refused to accept the package.
PDEA 7 regional director Levi Ortiz said the package came from the Netherlands and arrived at the central office of the BoC last September 22.
The package was declared to contain key chains but personnel of the BoC became suspicious when it did not show indications of containing metallic materials.
The BoC then alerted the PDEA, which later discovered the presence of ecstasy in the package.
Ortiz said PDEA 7 agents flew to Manila to pick up the package since it was addressed to Henrich Gambino care of Chari Anne Montejo in Poblacion I, Malabuyoc.
The package was supposed to be delivered through Philippine Postal Corporation.
Ortiz said before they arrived in Malabuyoc, Montejo had advised the postmaster that she will not receive a package addressed to her.
Ortiz said they waited Montejo to pick up the package but she didn’t show up.
The postmaster then went to Montejo’s house but the woman still refused to accept the package.
Ortiz said they later learned that the reason Montejo refused to accept the package was that she was warned by her cousin that it contained illegal drugs.
“That raised a question to us why her cousin knew that the package contained illegal drugs,” said Ortiz.
Ortiz said Montejo and her cousin will be invited for further questioning.
Ortiz was with Malabuyoc Mayor Lito Creus and Police Col. Aladdin Collado, chief of the Cebu Provincial Police Office, when an inventory of the seized illegal drugs was done in front of the town’s postal office last Thursday. (Calvin D. Cordova)
