Rex Cobol and John Labayen have been charged with fraud and violating provisions of Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers

National Bureau of Investigation is looking for three suspected members of an international drug syndicate following the arrest of two other members who allegedly recruited a teacher for a job overseas.The teacher, however, claimed that the two men tried to make him a drug courier.
Agents of the NBI Reaction, Arrest and Interdiction Division operatives are now looking for Desiree Quinto – said to be the head of the West African drug syndicate that has moved its operations from Vietnam to Malaysia – and her suspected cohorts identified as Grace Caltino and Marlon Oribello.On Oct. 19, the NBI arrested two suspected members of the gang – Rex Cobol and John Labayen– at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 where they were supposed to board a plane bound for China.Cobol was reportedly responsible for processing fake documents for the syndicate’s “mules” or couriers.The syndicate’s drug couriers, it was learned, transport drugs either by swallowing capsules containing the illegal substances or by inserting the capsules in different orifices of the body.Earlier, Paul John Villavicencio, the suspects’ victim, went to the Department of Foreign Affairs to ask for help.He said he was recruited by the suspects to work as a teacher in China but was taken instead to Thailand.In Bangkok, Quinto asked him to be one of the group’s “mules” or drug couriers.
He said he turned down the offer.Villavicencio said he later managed to escape from the suspects.
He went to the Philippine Embassy in Thailand, which sent him back to the country on Oct. 2.After he went to the NBI, agents conducted an entrapment operation, resulting in the suspects’ arrest.Cobol and Labayen have been charged with fraud and violating provisions of Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995