Snomannen
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Michaela del CallarMay 9, 2013 5:00pm
Four Filipinos were arrested in Macau over the weekend for allegedly smuggling more than 50 kilograms of high-grade cocaine amounting to about P1 billion, in what is believed to be the biggest drug trafficking incident to date in the Chinese territory.
The Filipinos - two men and two women were arrested on May 4 following a drug bust operation conducted by Macaus judiciary police on Saturday, Macau media reported on Thursday.
Based on news reports, the Filipinos were identified as a 44-year-old man surnamed Ermino, a 36-year-old man surnamed Julian, a 25-year-old woman surnamed Alcantara and a 26-year-old woman surnamed Garcia.
Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said representatives from the Philippine Consulate General in Macau has conducted a prison visit and confirmed that the four are Filipinos.
We informed the four Filipinos that we are ready to assist them and ensure that their rights and welfare are protected, Hernandez said in a text message.
The four Filipinos were first spotted at the airport and were followed separately to two hotels in the Central Macau Peninsula, reports said. They were believed to have departed from Sao Paolo, Brazil where they picked up the drugs weighing 50.848 kilograms before heading to Macau via Beijing.
The cocaine, with a street value of about $24.5 million or 200 million Macau patacas due to its high purity, were found in the Filipinos luggage. The drugs were packed in boxes covered with gift-wrapping paper.
The police said it is possible that the four are members of a drug-trafficking syndicate in Macau and may have entered the Macau, mainland China and some Southeast Asian countries to test the drug enforcement capabilities of various ports and plan their shipment, the report said.
The police said it is likely that the suspects originally planned to traffic the cocaine to the Philippines or other areas surrounding Macau.
Unlike in mainland China, Macau does not impose death penalty. Under Macaus 2009 Drug Abuse and Drug Trafficking Law, smuggling of prohibited substance carries a penalty ranging from 8 to 12 years in jail.
The latest drug trafficking incident involving Filipinos indicates that many of them are unfazed by the death sentences carried out in 2011 by the Chinese government on four Philippine nationals who smuggled large quantities of drugs to the country. The four convicted Filipino drug smugglers died by lethal injection.
Nine months later, China executed another convicted Filipino drug mule, refocusing attention to the government's futile efforts to deal with criminal syndicates exploiting vulnerable Filipino workers, who are used to ferry drugs for money or by trickery.
Filipino women and lately even men are reportedly being hired by West African drug syndicates to smuggle drugs mainly in Asia and South America - sometimes by ingesting it.
In China alone, at least 70 Filipinos involved in drug trafficking have been sentenced to death with two-year reprieves, 45 were meted life imprisonment, 80 with fixed jail terms and 12 have pending drugs cases. - VVP, GMA News
Four Pinoys nabbed in Macau’s biggest cocaine smuggling case | Pinoy Abroad | GMA News Online
Drug is bad, M'kay?
Well at least they are smart enough to do their business in Macau, not in Mainland China.
