Philippines’ corrupt customs bureau makes mockery of Duterte’s war on drugs
- What do shady operatives, whistle-blowers, X-ray scanners, and a US$205 million drug haul have in common?
- They’re part of the deceit and debacles at the Bureau of Customs that turned Duterte’s deadly war on drugs into a farce
The plot includes shady operatives, whistle-blowers, X-ray scanners, sniffer dogs – and a colossal shipment of drugs with a value beggaring belief.
At the heart of the story are magnetic lifters, the massive, circular steel plates attached to cranes to move scrap metal.
Unbeknown to the team, however, a far bigger prize had eluded them. Someone who saw a television report on the raid reported that, weeks previously, he had helped bring four similar-looking magnetic lifters to a warehouse in Cavite City, south of Manila. But when operatives raced to the location on August 10, they were too late. In the deserted warehouse were four abandoned magnetic lifters, each with a neat square cut into the flat surface. Trained sniffer dogs found traces of shabu in the cavities. They had been emptied on July 15, more than three weeks before they were discovered by agents.