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MANILA, Philippines?More and more Filipino women are being used as couriers or ?mules? by international drug traffickers, according to the Philippine Embassy in Hanoi.
In its report to the home office on Wednesday, the embassy said it learned about the syndicate?s modus operandi from a woman who sought their assistance after she was stranded in Vietnam after a trip to Cambodia.
The embassy said the prospective ?mule? had been told by alleged recruiters to bring with her a package supposed to contain slippers to be sent to China. The package, however, was not delivered because of a miscommunication between her and her Nigerian contacts.
An interview by embassy officials indicated she may have become unknowingly involved in illegal drug trafficking.
The officials said this may partly explain why some of those caught for alleged drug trafficking claimed they did not know anything about the drugs found in their possession.
The victims were apparently banking on jobs promised them in China in exchange for bringing ?personal things? to China for their ?benefactor.?
The embassy also revealed an incident where three Filipino women were offered $500 to $600 each by a Nigerian to deliver 5-10 pieces of T-shirts from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to China. The T-shirts could have been immersed in liquefied illegal drugs and then dried before delivery, it added.
Earlier, the Philippine Embassy in Beijing appealed to Filipino travelers to heed the government?s warning not to allow themselves to be used as couriers by drug syndicates.
China and other countries strictly impose harsh penalties on persons caught in possession of or who engage in the trafficking of prohibited drugs.
