Customs and police authorities said they were tipped off on the presence of a 20-foot container van carrying 300 kilos of Methampetamine Hydrochrloride or "shabu" cleverly concealed in 20 wooden boxes and sprayed with varnish, whose overwhelming smell may confuse drug-sniffing trained K-9s.

Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo ordered Circuit TV mobile X-ray machines from the bureau’s Circuit TV Scanning Unit based at the NAIA to help identify the illegal drug before ordering its thorough examination and laboratory tests.

It was later learned that the contraband shipment arrived from Bangkok on board cargo vessel MV Hanjin Busan and was consigned to Ware Tech Manufacturing Corporation at 16 New York St., Meycauayan, Bulacan. At the NAIA, Bernardo, Deputy Commissioner for enforcement Ray Allas, NAIA District Collector Celso Templo, and Col. Jose Yuchongco, customs police chief and concurrently head of the CTV-Scanning Unit, inspected the seized shipment at the Paircargo, Philippine Skylanders, Inc and Miascor cargo warehouses.

About 150,000 Valium capsules, a sedative and Mogadon tablets, an anti-depressant drug both known to be used by substance abusers, were flown into the country from Lahore, Pakistan,on a Thai International Airways jet recently.

The contraband was placed in carton boxes consigned to a certain Niozar Ahmed Javed of Pakistan. Yuchongco said shrewd businessmen buy these drugs from countries known to produce fake medicines packaged to appear like high-end medicines from reputable drug firms. Syndicates even repack genuine drugs that have passed their efficacy date, endangering rather than providing a cure for its ailing beneficiary.

"These smuggled regulated medicines may be bought by a patient who is on a tight budget at a price much lower than their matching branded counterparts sold in local drugstores. But consumers should be wary about the usefulness of these drugs," Yuchongco said.

The customs police chief warned the public to be discriminating in their purchase and the dispensing to patients of such drugs as they did not pass through strict regulations by the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD).

Customs authorities also seized 709 kilos of DVD and VCDs carrying soon-to-be-shown Hollywood and pornographic films earlier declared as electrical parts by four separate consignees based in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Bernardo said the confiscated shipments were left unclaimed by their owners prompting them to tag the cargoes as "on alert" status to prevent the owners from claiming them.

Bernardo said the regulated drugs haul will be turned over to the PDEA for proper disposition and follow-up operations while the pirated movies on DVDs and VCDs will be destroyed in the presence of Videogram Regulatory Board (VRB) officials.