Manama: The Philippine embassy in Doha has warned Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Qatar against being used as "drug mules" or couriers of prohibited drugs.
In a circular addressed to leaders of the Filipino community, the embassy called for greater awareness among all Filipinos on avoiding being lured by international drug syndicates and warned of the grave risks facing those who allow themselves to become "drug mules."
The circular was based on a press release issued by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) that exposed the illegal activities by international drug syndicates after a successful crackdown through an operation in the Philippines dubbed Operation Homerun conducted by the DFA's Task Force on Drug Couriers (TFDC), the Qatari newspaper The Peninsula reported.
According to the report, syndicates have been luring unsuspecting vacationing OFWs on their way back to their host countries; using them as couriers of prohibited drugs being secretly slipped out of the Philippines.
Cresecente Relacion, Philippine Ambassador to Qatar, however said there had been no Qatar-based OFWs among those arrested in the continuing TFDC drive at the international airports in the Philippines.
"But just the same, we ask our countrymen to remain extra vigilant and careful from falling into these traps," Relacion told the daily.
Relacion said some of the cases discovered by the TFDC were Filipinas going to China and who were lured by drug syndicates.
