Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Little did Ronald Revera and Bryan Cortes know that they were being closely watched by Bureau of Customs (BoC) officials.
In a video taken by a surveillance camera on Saturday, the two were seen collecting a package at the Federal Express cargo warehouse at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
There seemed to be nothing suspicious about the package, which the BOC said had arrived on October 21.
Moments after, Revera and Cortes are seen in the video being approached by a man wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals.
He turned out to be a Customs agent. The two were invited inside the Customs police office.
When the package was opened, there was a backpack in it. When the backpack was unzipped, a parcel was inside.
The parcel contained 1.2 kilos of shabu with an estimated street value of ₱8 million ($163,265).
Customs officials on Monday said the pair were followed because the papers they submitted were fake.
“Binantayan natin ito [We monitored this] through intensive intelligence work along with the other government agencies for weeks,” said Ariel Nepomuceno, BoC deputy commissioner.
“Ang mga ginamit nilang mga papeles puro peke, pekeng ID, pekeng address kaya nahuli natin dahil binabantayan ito with the local and intelligence communities,” he added.
[Translation: “The papers they used were all fake, fake ID, fake address, that’s why we caught them because this was being monitored with the local and intelligence communities.]
The suspects are now in custody of customs police and will be charged with violating the Dangerous Drugs Act and the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.
The shabu has been turned over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the BoC said in a statement.
Customs officials are successful in intercepting this one, though they admit the task remains daunting, as drug syndicates resort to smuggling.
“Kasi habang naghihigpit, siyempre maghahanap ng paraan yung mga masasama ang intensyon,” Nepomuceno said.
[Translation: As we tighten the noose, for sure those with evil intentions will find a way.]
The BoC named one Kinzolani Guylain from Congo as the sender of the parcel that was discovered in the backpack.
The arrest of the two men and the seized shabu comes as the President reiterated his vow to see through the campaign against illegal drugs and punish those who support it.
“The order is simply this: Go out. Arrest them if you can but if there is no peaceful method of doing it and you are presented with a violent resistance, thereby placing in jeopardy your life, you shoot the son of a b****. Shoot them dead,” the President said in a speech on Monday at the 80th anniversary of the National Bureau of Investigation.
The Philippines is among the world’s main exporters of shabu, says the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime.
The country’s strategic location makes it a gateway of shabu from Africa and Mexico to China, Japan, Indonesia, and Australia.
Shabu in the country was also one the region’s cheapest, until President Rodrigo Duterte launched his war against illegal drugs in July.
Since then, the street value has risen from P1,500 per gram to as much as P25,000 per gram, as shabu supply is curtailed, says the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
More kilos of shabu have been seized this year compared to the previous years, and shabu labs just outside Metro Manila have been discovered and destroyed by police.
Drug enforcement authorities said that close to 1,500 kilos of shabu have been seized in 2016 so far, more than twice the amount taken in 2015.
Law enforcement however hopes, that the government can give them more funds to buy more X-ray machines and train personnel better.
