The Bureau of Customs (BOC) heightened monitoring for illegal drugs and Customs’ official order to seize on site, regardless of its volume, any shipment of illegal or banned drugs and precursor chemicals for the manufacture of illegal drugs, has resulted for the BOC its biggest drug haul since 2010.

“We will never allow the lives of the Filipino youth to be wasted by illegal drugs. This is precisely the reason why I have made it clear to all Customs frontline operatives, especially those assigned to drug smuggling prone areas like the airports, to be doubly alert for any drug smuggling attempt,” Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon said.

In a report through the BOC Director for Enforcement and Security Service, Retired General George Aliño, the BOC, as of November 22, has already caused the seizure of 63.523 kilos of shabu, 19 pieces of alprozalam, 8.737 kilos of cocaine and 19 tablets of MDMA (ecstacy) with a total street value of P462.76 million.

The 2012 drug haul, according to Biazon, is over 10 times bigger than its 2011 seizures of 6 kilos of shabu and 195 ampules and vials of assorted regulated medicines worth P42 million. In 2010, the BOC also confiscated a total of 37.9768 kilos of shabu worth P265.9 million.

According to the report, 15 foreign nationals with most of them Asians, have already been arrested for attempting to smuggle drugs into the country this year through the airport.

In 2011 a Malaysian and a Filipino-American were also arrested when they were found to have illegal drugs concealed in their luggage. While in 2010, a Malaysian and two Thai were also detained by the BOC and later turned-over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency for the filing of formal charges after they were found to be in possession of shabu upon their arrival at the airport.