MANILA, Philippines - More than 40 Filipinos are in jail in Brazil for drug trafficking, according to Brazil’s top diplomat in Manila.
Ambassador Alcides Prates said most of the Filipinos jailed for drug-related offenses in Brazil are women.
Prates spoke to reporters at the first diplomatic reception hosted by Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario at The Peninsula Manila in Makati on Monday.
A Filipina was arrested at the Guarulhos International Airport in Brazil last Aug. 19 after police found five kilos of cocaine in 15 bags hidden in her luggage with false bottoms, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Quoting a report from the Philippine embassy in Brasilia, the DFA said the Filipina told police she bought the bags in the middle of the street in Sao Paolo and intended to sell them in the Philippines.
She was not aware that the bags contained prohibited substances.
The embassy reported that from January to October 2010, 15 Filipinos were arrested in Brazil for drug trafficking, 13 of them women.
