French connection leads Customs to P28M vouchers

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Customs (BOC) seized a mail parcel from Africa declared as “letters and cards” but contained United States postal money order vouchers amounting to about P28 million following a tipoff from French authorities.

Joel Palawin, officer in charge of the BOC’s intelligence group, said the vouchers, totaling 651 pieces, were wrapped in sheets of carbon paper and placed inside two mail envelopes.

Customs officials on Wednesday showed the media the two mail envelopes containing the money orders, raising suspicion that it could be a racket by unscrupulous individuals.

“It could be happening without being detected by the scanners,” Palawin said.

Palawin said the money orders with a total face value of $631,470 was mailed via FedEx courier on Oct. 22 from Togo, a country in West Africa. The parcel travelled to France, New Delhi in India, and China before reaching the Philippines.

Without the information sent by their counterpart in France, the package could have gone past the customs’ scanners undetected since a carbon paper could effectively hide the real contents of a package, he said.

After French authorities issued the alert, the money order vouchers amounting to $970 each were intercepted upon arrival on Nov. 3.

According to the BOC, the French customs inspected the package upon arrival in France and discovered its real contents.

Since the package was not addressed to a French national, the French authorities allowed the package to travel to the Philippines, but it alerted the BOC at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and provided them with the Air Flight number and the Air Bill reference of the parcel.

The parcel was reported to be consigned to a certain John Secada Matters at Unit 710 Ferrous Bel-Air Tower on Polaris Street in Makati City.

All the postal money orders, however, lack names and addresses, raising more suspicions among customs examiners, Palawin said.

“We are still determining if the money orders are authentic and there was a violation of the antimoney laundering law,” he said.

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