Police file charges vs alleged drug mule in Cebu

January 30, 2018

CEBU CITY-- Police on Tuesday filed illegal possession of prohibited drugs against alleged drug mule Dorotea Ausan Moyes, 61, at the Cebu City Prosecutor's Office even as she signed a waiver of detention at the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) giving her 10 days to answer the charges.

Moyes is waiving her right to be detained without charges and this free the police from liability of being charged with arbitrary detention.

Fuente Police Station operative SPO3 Darius Libanan said they did not proceed with illegal transport of drugs since the drugs were confiscated in a hotel and not transported to another place.

Moyes, an Australian citizen, denied involvement and even investigators she was suspicious of the package when she received it as she called the attention of the hotel guard.

“Guard please check the content of this package, Im getting suspicious,” was what Moyes told Parklane Hotel guard Romeo Salvacion when asked during police investigation. The package later turned out to be a kilo of shabu worth P11 million.

Guards alerted authorities and they held Moyes, a nursing assistant in Australia.

Moyes came from Perth, Australia, on her way to Hongkong, then to Japan to meet her boyfriend she identified as Andrew Woods. She said she met him online and he gave her plane tickets for them to meet in Japan where his ship will dock. Woods also arranged for her accommodation at Parklane Hotel here in Cebu.

Moyes told investigator that she met Woods online. She said Woods claimed he is a seaman aboard an international cargo ship. They became friends and October last year they both decided to get married this year. Police failed to identify the name of the shipping company.

She said Woods arranged meeting her in Osaka, where his ship will dock, as he paid for her trip. Upon her arrival in Cebu last Friday she received a call from Woods telling her that Jude will meet her the next day.

Early Saturday morning she went to One Mango, a commercial hub in Mango avenue some four kilometers away from her hotel, where she will meet Jude.

At past 7 a.m. she was walking in One Mango when Caucasian-looking guy asked if she is Moyes and introduced himself as Jude. He then invited her to 7-11 store and outside the store Jude handed her a laptop bag, which was handed by another man.

Jude told her the bag contains a laptop, and some contract documents for Wood to sign.

Jude even gave her $100 for her expenses. Then they parted ways as Moyes took the taxi back to her hotel. While at the taxi Moyes became suspicious of the “Apple” laptop bag so she examined it. Aside from a cheap laptop, she found a carton tightly wrapped with packaging tape and some contract documents.

At the hotel she called the attention of Salvacion, who in turn called up K-9 handler Christoper Mayao, to have a dog sniff the bag. The dog sat after sniffing the bag, an indication of the bag’s suspicious contents. All these were seen in the CCTV camera.  Video footage and Salvacion’s affidavit supported Moyes claim of calling of seeking guard’s help on the package.

Hotel administrators informed police and Fuente Police Station responded together with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). DMS