THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Friday apprehended anew another misdeclared shipment of a trading company from Binondo, Manila, which was tagged as behind the attempt by a Chinese drug syndicate to smuggle into the country last month laboratory equipments and ingredients for the manufacture of illegal drugs.

Customs Commissioner Rozzano “Ruffy” Biazon  said the two 40-footer container vans consigned to W. A. Bitangcor Enteprises from China, worth P20 million, comprised the biggest in terms of value of several shipments intercepted by the Customs Police (Enforcement and Security Service) at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) under ESS Dir. George Aliño.

He said their initial inventory disclosed that WA Bitangcor tried to bring in chip condensers, pumps, a control panel, thermometer, fittings, boilers, reactors and valves among other gears for setting up a laboratory.

Aliño, for his part, said they are looking into the possibility that the shipment was part of the first batch of laboratory equipment and ingredients for the manufacture of shabu loaded in six container vans the BOC apprehended last month.

“Same consignee, same customs broker, same origin, which is why we are looking into this shipment carefully,” Aliño, a veteran official of the Philippine National Police (PNP) before his appointment to the BOC, told People’s Tonight.

Also ordered confiscated are a shipment of outboard motors and parts consigned to Scan Marine, Inc., worth P6.8 million; a shipment of imported candies worth P1 million by Extreme Five Trading misdeclared as food additives; and, P4.4 million of electric meters consigned to Telsphere International Trading, which was misdeclared as vacuum heaters.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) had previously credited the BOC, specifically, the ESS, for foiling efforts by international drug syndicates to bring in materials and equipment into the country such as those from WA Bitangcor.