LAPU-LAPU CITY- A South African drug mule was arrested by Bureau of Customs authorities past 11am yesterday here, Thursday, September 18, at the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) Terminal 2 after he disembarked from a Cathay Pacific flight (CX921) which departed from Hongkong after a connecting flight from Johannesburg, South Africa.
The suspect, Keith Charles Moore Koekemoer, 36, was detected by the on-duty X-ray inspectors (names withheld) after he became fidgety as he approached the aiport’s customs desk and his luggages were subjected to an x-ray scanning machine.
The non-intrusive x-ray scanning led to the discovery of more or less 4 (four) kilos of shabu that were concealed inside two wooden boxes that were made to look like books when a customs examiner manually inspected the luggage of the South African.
With a Standard Drug Price (SDP) of P27 million, the successful drug Interdiction operation which was also coordinated with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA 7) incidentally happened as Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno was in Cebu yesterday to preside a bureau wide case conference to run after erring importers and smugglers.
Accompanied by Port of Cebu Collector Atty. Felipe Geoffrey De Vera Nepomuceno told reporters that the agency is consistent in its campaign in customs law enforcement and border control especially on the smuggling of illicit drugs and substances.
Apart from the x-ray machine, the customs operatives also used a spectometer, a hand-held chemical detention device which confirmed the illegal substance aside from the K9 sniffing dog that sat on it.
Nepomuceno has instructed Subport of Mactan Collector Gerardo Campo to immediately file the appropriate criminal charges against the South African who reasoned that he was never aware that there were illicit drugs inside his luggage because a friend back home just asked him a favor to bring it as somebody will just fetch him in the Mactan Airport./CCO
📷 Julius Galang/photo credit
(the South African suspect after his arrest at the Mactan Cebu Intl. Airport (MCIA) Terminal 2)
(The K9 dog of PDEA 7 which sat near the illegal substances that were taken out from the luggage of the suspect)
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(the handheld chemical detection device used by customs operatives which indicated the “methamphetamine” that was inside the luggage of the suspect)
