MANILA, Philippines – Condemned Filipina Mary Jane Veloso fits the profile of the usual target of international drug syndicates on the lookout for possible drug couriers: female, someone desperate to find a job, a displaced overseas Filipino worker, and someone with a poor educational background.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency spokesperson (PDEA) Director Derrick Arnold Carreon, in a podcast interview, says the amiable personality and trustful nature of Filipinas make them easy targets of small-scale West African drug syndicates.
How Veloso was duped and victimized also fits the syndicates’ modus operandi. With another Filipino as a cohort, potential drug couriers are enticed with a promise of a job abroad. And while waiting for the drug delivery to the next transit point, the syndicate lulls the victim into fully trusting them by splurging on him or her, and going on a shopping spree.
The victim ends up needing a bigger luggage. And this is exactly how Veloso fell into the trap.
In this interview, Carreon, who also heads the secretariat of Task Force Drug Courier, reveals how the agency helped in boosting Veloso’s human trafficking defense.
He also shares what PDEA has found out so far in its investigation on the drug syndicate behind Veloso’s drug trafficking case, and how Filipinos can avoid the same fate that befell her.
Let’s listen in. – Rappler.com
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