X-rays don’t lie either, says Customs exec about drugs

X-rays show contraband stuffed in magnetic lifters sneaked into the Manila piers last July. And litter at the Cavite stowage of the four steel gadgets point to drugs.

Those findings by a Customs x-ray inspection expert corroborates that of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency of large-scale shabu smuggling. About 700 kilos of shabu worth P6.8 billion are now being sold in the streets.

Atty. Lourdes V. Mangaoang testified last week at the Senate Blue-Ribbon Committee. Now posted at Manila International Airport, she headed the X-Ray Inspection Project for five years, 2007-2013. Praised by committee chairman Sen. Richard Gordon, she contradicted the denials by her Customs higher-ups of the drug smuggling.

Mangaoang presented x-ray scans of the magnetic lifters from the July 14 inspection at the Manila International Container Port. There was cloudiness in the hollow insides of the lifters, in contrast to the solid shade of the steel. That indicated concealed items, whereupon the x-ray operator should have ordered a physical inspection. No different from an airline passenger being asked to open luggage on x-ray spotting of suspicious content. No such physical exam was done, however. Thus the four lifters were cleared for release.

On a tip on Aug. 7, PDEA had alerted Customs-Manila about a drug shipment through two similar lifters. On interdiction, 355 kilos of shabu worth P3.4 billion were discovered inside the hollow middles. Seeing the TV news, a warehouseman in Gen. Mariano Alvarez, Cavite, called the PDEA about the four lifters delivered there in May. The contents had been removed, but sniffer dogs detected traces of drugs. Less reliable swabs of the insides of the lifters tested negative, on which basis Customs chief Isidro Lapeña dispelled any drug smuggling.

But PDEA director general Aaron Aquino had insisted that “dogs don’t lie.” The canines are trained to sit upon whiffing drugs, and have no reason to mislead handlers, he said. Dogs’ sense of smell is 10,000 times more sensitive than humans.’ (See Gotcha 3 Sept. 2018: https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2018/09/03/1848156/pdea-chief-dogs-dont-lie-about-drugs). Since the two confiscated lifters contained 355 kilos of shabu, PDEA deduced that the four smuggled ones contained double.

“X-rays don’t lie either,” Mangaoang attested. Adept with Customs inspection equipment, she said the x-rays can be switched to color mode for clearer differentiation of objects and density. Allegedly the operator was untrained in the giant cargo container x-rays at the piers, only in smaller portable units with different computer operating system.

This was also the first time that magnetic lifters underwent x-ray scanning, said Mangaoang, who trained in x-ray inspections worldwide. Under international protocols, the operator all the more should have signaled a physical inspection, instead of relying solely on the declared and described Customs entry.

Metals usually are used to conceal contraband; thus the need for stricter inspection. Mangaoang recalled, during her headship of the cargo container x-rays, the scanning of a steel vault with indeterminate contents. Ordering it opened, she had found firearms inside. Last year 605 kilos of shabu worth P6.4 billion were sneaked past Customs concealed in printing cylinders made of metal.

The steel casings of the magnetic lifters were 1.5 inches thick, and the cargo container wall three inches thick, for a total 4.5 inches of metal to be x-rayed, Mangaoang said. The x-ray penetration of the Customs machine is 11 inches, whether one solid or several pieces of adjoined or separate metal sheets. Wood, double that thickness, is penetrated easier. 

The lifters are like giant steel wheels. On research Mangaoang learned that such equipment are purchased as a set, with industrial overhead crane, chains, electric cables and fixed support. Yet all she found at the Cavite warehouse were the giant wheel-like electromagnets. Conclusion: without the requisite accessories, there was no intention to use the equipment for industrial purposes – only as instruments of concealment.

Mangaoang measured the dimensions: 71 inches diameter, 24 inches width, 13 inches depth of hollow middle. Oddly on the flat side of each lifter is a square hole, 10 x 10 inches, roughly cut through the steel. “There are ink marks on the margins of the hole, like with Pentel Pen,” Mangaoang said. The two lifters seized at the Manila port had the same square holes. She deduced that the smugglers at the Vietnam origin had marked where the metal was to be cut through to retrieve the contents. The metal cutouts were strewn on the floor.

Also littered around the lifters were shreds of asbestos fabric. From experience, Mangaoang said such material is used as heat shield, like firemen’s coats. Apparently the shabu in plastic bags was wrapped with asbestos fabric because the lifters were to be shipped inside metal containers on open cargo decks for days under the heat of the sun. The drug would have melted without the protection.

Four warehousemen also testified that last July seven Chinese nationals, including the two lessors, went to Cavite for the lifters. The warehousemen were ordered out of the premises, but not before one of them saw the Chinese pull out an electric circular saw from a bag. They heard metal grinding for four hours, after which the Chinese left in two vehicles.

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Tenor Ramon “Montet” Acoymo, Aliw Award Hall of Famer for Best Male Classical Singer, will give a concert for the centennial celebration of the University of the Philippines College of Education. Venue on Oct. 18, Thursday, 6:30 p.m. is the institution’s Benitez Theater, Diliman campus.

With Prof. Augusto Espino as pianist, the two Chancellor’s Awardees as “Most Outstanding Classical Musicians” of UP-Diliman will present a repertoire of Sacred Music; Philippine, European, and American Art Music and Opera Arias; and Broadway favorites.

Proceeds will be for scholarship grants and other projects of the UP College of Education Alumni Association. P300-ticket donations available at the box office or from Norma, at 0927- 3176902 and (02) 9293386.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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