BEIJING: The General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) cleared Philippine customs officials of involvement in the smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of shabu into the Philippines, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) said Sunday. In an emailed statement, the BOC said it received a letter from GACC’s International Enforcement Cooperation Division dated July 17, 2017 saying that there were no other illegal drug shipments to the Philippines from China during the period.
“We hereby certificated [sic] that no Filipino citizen was detected by ASB [Anti-Smuggling Bureau] to be involved in the drug smuggling and that based on our intelligence, there was only one shipment of drug destined for the Philippines and no other shipment was related to this case,” ASB Head Zhang Xiaohui was quoted as saying. This comes after 605 kilograms of shabu estimated to be worth P6.4 billion were found in a warehouse in Valenzuela in May. The shipment is said to have been from China. “Thank you to the prompt action of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, Bureau of Philippine Customs, the 605 kilograms of methamphetamine hydrochloride was successfully seized. Otherwise, the drugs will go into the black market which the consequence cannot be imagined,” Zhang was again quoted as saying.
