Inquiry names RP top drug sources

Inquiry names RP top drug sources

MANILA (AFP): China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are the main sources of illegal metamphetamines being smuggled into the Philippines as part of a multi-billion-dollar business, a Senate inquiry was warned on Wednesday.

Col. Victor Corpus, the military intelligence chief, said big shipments of methamphetamine hydrochloride or "ice" were being smuggled in through different points across the archipelago by Chinese syndicates with the collusion of local authorities.

In one three-week period in 1998 alone, the syndicates smuggled an average of 108 million pesos (US$2.1 million) in drugs, he said.

Drugs of the highest quality are shipped on to other destinations overseas while cheaper narcotics are sold in the Philippines, Corpus said.