The job of airport security is to confiscate dangerous items from suitcases, but travellers have recently found the opposite is true in the Philippines’ Manila Airport, where staff have allegedly been dropping bullets into the bags of unsuspecting passengers.
Legislators have called for an investigation into the supposed racket that extorts money from passengers by threatening to charge or arrest them for carrying illegal ammunition, the BBC reported.
“This is becoming an international embarrassment,” said Sherwin Gatchalian, a member of the tourism committee in the House of Representatives, according to the BBC. He warned that the offenders were “not afraid to prey on foreigners.”
A Filipino worker and Japanese tourist were the latest passengers to be detained in the swindle at the Southeast Asian nation’s main gateway. Other targets have reportedly been taken to court for refusing to pay fines.
Surveillance has heightened as investigators look into the incidents. After all, “there is no working system that is guarding the guards,” the BBC reported Senator Ralph Recto as saying.
A baby tiger cub is found in the suitcase of a woman flying from Bangkok to Iran, at Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Bangkok, Thailand. Authorities at the airport found the baby tiger cub that had been drugged and hidden among stuffed toy tigers in the suitcase. Photo release Aug. 22, 2010.Suvarnabhumi Airport Wildlife Checkpoint/APU.S. customs inspectors at Los Angeles International Airport seized a shipment of several dozen live Giant African snails seen inthis photo released on July 14, 2014, considered a delicacy in Nigeria but also pests that can eat paint and stucco off houses.Handout/ReutersA Dutch traveller was caught trying to smuggle more than a dozen live hummingbirds in special pouches sewn into the inside of his underwear at Rochambeau airport on Sept, 28, 2011 in Cayenne, French Guiana. The birds were individually wrapped in cloth and taped up to prevent them from escaping.Whitehotpix/ZumaPressA crocodile native to India is shown to the press during a news conference in Bangkok on June 2, 2011. Thai customs authorities say 431 turtles and other rare reptiles were stuffed into four suitcases and smuggled into the Bangkok airport. Apichart Weerawong—APAn Australian man was caught with two pigeons hidden in his pants on a flight from Dubai to Melbourne, Australia on Feb 1, 2009. The 23-year-old man was questioned by Customs after two eggs and some seeds were found in a vitamin container in his luggage. A search of his body found two live pigeons wrapped in padded envelopes and held to the man's legs with a pair of tights. Australian Customs Service/APAn officer from Singapore's Immigration and Custom Authority holds one of many star tortoise which were found in the hand luggage of an Indian national at Singapore's Changi Airport on Sept. 15, 2003. An Indian national was apprehended for illegal possessing 499 endangered star tortoises.AFP/Getty ImagesThis undated photo provided by the Department of Justice shows a detained suspect with songbirds strapped to his legs at Los Angeles International Airport The man was charged on May 5, 2009.Department of Justice/APAn Indonesian customs officer shows a python snake, part of a haul discovered at the Sukarno-Hatta airport in Tangerang outside Jakarta on March 26, 2011. Indonesian airport officials said they foiled an attempt by two Kuwaitis to smuggle 40 pythons in their luggage. AFP/Getty Images/NewscomA woman arrived in Melbourne, Australia on a flight from Singapore with 51 live tropical fish hidden in a specially designed apron under her skirt on June 6, 2005. Customs officers became suspicious after hearing 'flipping' noises coming from her waist.Australian Customs Service/APAn employee of Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau holds one of five sailfin lizards that were smuggled into Hong Kong and brought back to the Philippines on June 8, 2012. The lizards were smuggled into Hong Kong along with 18 Philippine pond turtles and 13 Asian box turtles.Bullit Marquez—AP
A plane passenger with dozens of deadly tarantula spiders hidden in his luggage was arrested as he tried to smuggle the spiders past customs officials in Zurich Airport, Switzerland. The spiders were endangered Mexican red kneed tarantulas, and are understood to have died of cold during the flight.Newscom
![IN FRIGHT SERVICEA plane passenger with dozens of deadly tarantula spiders hidden in his luggage was arrested as he tried to smuggle the creepy-crawly cargo past customs officials in Zurich Airport, Switzerland.The male passenger - who has not been named by police - had stashed the spiders in six boxes hidden in a suitcase he'd brought in on a flight from the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.The specimens - all endangered Mexican red kneed tarantulas - are understood to have died of cold during the flight.Experts say they can live for up to 30 years and adults have a leg span of up to six inches. (Newscom TagID: epphotos014605.jpg) [Photo via Newscom]](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/wildlife-smuggling-airport-10.jpg?quality=75&w=2400 "wildlife-smuggling-airport-10")