16 kilos of banned pills seized at NAIA

Alert examiners of the Bureau of Customs at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal I seized some 16 kilos of Bangkok pills from a businesswoman who arrived on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok yesterday.

Ricardo Belmonte, BOC-NAIA district collector, commended Customs examiner Edmundo Gonzales who found the huge stash of prohibited dietary pills inside a large brown carton box in the possession of Thai Airways Flight TG-620 passenger Luz Anastacio, 54, who tried to pass them off as grocery items.

"This is another major seizure of the BOC-NAIA as a result of our heightened vigilance against contraband being brought into our borders," Belmonte said.

It was learned that Anastacio was trying to clear Customs when she presented the carton box and declared it as containing grocery items.

Gonzales, sensing Anastacio’s nervousness, decided to ask her to open the box for a more thorough check.

Seeing that it contained boxes of coffee creamers and other breakfast items that were heavily wrapped in tape, Gonzales then opened one of the smaller boxes.

His effort was rewarded when he found it to contain the banned pills.

Taking Bangkok pills to lose weight has been proven to have very adverse side effects.

Belmonte said that they will conduct further investigation into the seizure of the pills in an effort to find out about the passenger’s accomplices and fellow traffickers of the illegal drugs to bring out more arrests and seizures.