FOREIGN exchange students are being groomed as drug mules -- an indication of a shifting trend in the recruitment process of drug couriers, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

PDEA Director General Jose S. Gutierrez, Jr. believed that this was the case following the recent arrest of two members of an African Drug Syndicate (ADS) identified as Samuel Egbo y Chukwueloka, a Nigerian, and his Korean girlfriend named Yunji Choi, an alleged drug courier.

The two were arrested after selling half a kilogram of cocaine worth P2.5 million to an undercover PDEA agent.

Choi, 22, student, told PDEA that she met Egbo at an undisclosed university in Manila sometime last year, and eventually ended up having a relationship with the Nigerian. Choi has traveled frequently in and out of the country based on the entry and exit stamps in her passport.

Gutierrez said big-time drug syndicates are luring more Asians, notably students from Korea, as prospective drug couriers because they are inexperienced and naive.

“PDEA will continue to pursue an aggressive campaign against the recruitment of drug couriers and prevent these unwitting individuals from being victimized by members of organized international drug syndicates”, the PDEA chief concluded.    Alfred Dalizon & Jun Icban Legaspi