Probe brokerage firm, NBI told

Sen. Robert Barbers asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday to look deeper into the possible involvement of a Customs brokerage firm in the smuggling of shabu in the country.

Barbers, chairman of the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs, made the request to NBI director Reynaldo Wycoco after noting that JM Laurente Brokerage, owned by Jelly Laurente, had been called in to three Senate inquiries into drug smuggling.

The committee was investigating the seizure by the Bureau of Customs of about 34 kilos of shabu worth P80 million at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The contraband originated from Guangzhou, China, on a Federal Express flight via Subic.

One of those arrested, a certain Diogracias Viduyo, was identified as a supervisor of JM Laurente Brokerage. The other arrested suspect was Luisito Pabilona of PG Solido Customs Brokerage.

"In all these cases, Laurente said he did not know his employees were facilitating the entry of illegal drugs and he had always denied that his firm was involved in (drug smuggling)," he said.

Laurente claimed that Viduyo was acting on his own, and that his firm was never contracted to facilitate the release of the illegal shipment. He said he never signed any document pertaining to the shipment. — Efren Danao