Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director general Aaron Aquino said Thursday Manila’s drug queen is a politician and linked the online shopping company Lazada to the sale of drug paraphernalia.READ: PDEA: Drug queen deals with cops“She has a brother-policeman,” he said of the drug queen. “She is into politics so she is so powerful, and has connections with local government officials and with the Philippine National Police. She has other relatives who are also involved in drugs.”Because of her connections, she was able to evade arrest on two occasions, he said.At a press conference Thursday, Aquino also accused Lazada of selling drug paraphernalia through its website.“You can now order a tooter from Lazada,” Aquino said, referring to a cylinder that is used to snort drugs. “At first, we didn’t believe it until we ourselves found the items on Lazada.”“We need an explanation from Lazada.
The mere fact that it is selling this is already illegal,” he said.“With the availability of improvised tooters on online shopping, most likely, drugs are also being sold through it,” he added.He said Lalamove, an on-demand same-day delivery service, and the Gcash application that enables users to buy items and pay them through texting, are also being used for illegal drug activities.In his earlier statements before a Senate budget hearing, Aquino had said the drug queen traded in seized and recycled drugs that came from corrupt policemen.
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Last year, the National Bureau of Investigation and PDEA conducted separate operations to arrest the female big-time drug trader but the suspect managed to escape.Aquino blamed the so-called “ninja” or corrupt cops for her aborted arrest.The highest police officer involved in the recycling of the illegal drugs was a chief master sergeant or a senior police officer 3, he said.Like the PNP, Aquino said the corrupt cops constitute only a small portion of the police force.He said they moved from kidnapping to the recycling of seized drugs.On Thursday, PDEA arrested a pharmacist and a nurse in separate buy-bust operations in Metro Manila that resulted in the seizure of assorted illegal drugs worth P625,500.Aquino identified the suspects as Juan Carlos Reyes Antonio, a licensed pharmacist, and Nilo Manipon Ramirez Jr., a registered nurse from the Philippine Orthopedic Center.The buy-bust operation against Ramirez revealed that he bought his tooters from Lazada, Aquino said.
