Recently caught drug traffickers have reported making initial contact with their foreign employers through a range of Internet forums, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman Derrick Arnold Carreon said.<\/p>\n
“Somebody can ‘like’ you on Facebook, or request to be a friend and the next thing you know you are frequently chatting with them, and eventually they will offer you travels abroad,” Carreon told AFP.<\/p>\n
“This is now one of the most common modes of online recruitment being used by international drug syndicates.<\/p>\n
“It’s not just on Facebook, but any online medium or social networking site. It is becoming a worrying trend.”<\/p>\n
Carreon said people from impoverished countries, such as the Philippines, were highly susceptible to promises of making quick profits and the chance to escape harsh economic realities at home.<\/p>\n
They are then forced into becoming drug mules, a term used for people trafficking drugs, often by swallowing them or by hiding them inside their private parts, Carreon said.<\/p>\n
Their plight was recently in the spotlight after the Philippines secured a stay of execution for three Filipino drug traffickers sentenced to death in China.<\/p>\n
Filipino authorities appealed for mercy, saying the mules were from poor backgrounds and were themselves victims of the drug syndicates.<\/p>\n
There are 22.65 million Filipinos on Facebook, making the Philippines the fifth largest market for the popular social networking site, according to online trends specialist CheckFacebook.com.<\/p>\n