American national nabbed at NAIA for P17.4-M marijuana kush

A 62-year-old American was arrested at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 in Pasay City after authorities discovered approximately 17.464 kilograms of suspected marijuana kush in his luggage on Thursday, Oct. 29.

The suspect had arrived from Bangkok, Thailand, when customs X-ray screening flagged his luggage for further inspection.

A subsequent manual inspection and K-9 examination at the airport's international arrivals secondary inspection area uncovered the suspected drugs, valued at P17.46 million.

Personnel of the Philippine National Police Aviation Security Group (AVSEGROUP), through the NAIA Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group (NAIA-IADITG), arrested the suspect and turned over the seized substances to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for proper disposition and legal action.

"We will continue to intensify monitoring and security enforcement at our airports to prevent the entry of illegal drugs in our country. We will make sure that anyone found involved in this will face the full force of the law," AVSEGROUP Director Brig. Gen. Dionisio Bartolome Jr. said.