Olongapo: A foreign national and key member of the Sam Gor International Drug Syndicate has been sentenced to life imprisonment following his conviction in a PHP10-billion drug case, as announced by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Friday.
According to Philippines News Agency, PDEA Director General Undersecretary Isagani Nerez revealed that the Regional Trial Court Branch 98 in Olongapo City found Kong Ket Koon, a Chinese-Malaysian, guilty of violating Section 11 (Possession of Dangerous Drugs), Article II of Republic Act 9165, also known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Koon was apprehended on June 20, 2025, after authorities discovered his fishing vessel, F/B Christeve, carrying 1,480,395.20 grams of shabu. The illegal drugs were valued at PHP10,066,687,360 and were intercepted off the waters of Barangay Calapandayan, Subic, Zambales.
Alongside the life sentence, Koon has been ordered to pay a fine of PHP10 million, with subsidiary imprisonment should he be unable to pay. Additionally, the court has mandated the forfeiture of the fishing vessel to the government.
PDEA highlighted that the Sam Gor syndicate has been connected to previous incidents involving large amounts of floating shabu recovered in the waters of Bataan, Batanes, Cagayan, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, and Pangasinan. This recent maritime interdiction is considered one of the largest thwarted drug trafficking attempts in the history of the Philippines' naval operations.
"This is another moral victory for the national anti-drug campaign against high-profile foreign drug traffickers. The case was resolved in just five months considering the significance of the volume of seized drugs and the profile of the personality involved," Nerez commented.
Nerez further stated, "Swift justice inspires public confidence. For every case concluded with clarity and integrity, it strengthens the faith of our people in the system that serves them. For every timely verdict, it is not just a case closed, but a community reassured."
