It started like a drug-war police thriller. Now it’s playing like a farce, with bumbling agents pointing fingers at each other and an exasperated President Rodrigo Duterte looking hapless, sacking officials and calling in the army.

The plot includes shady operatives, whistle-blowers, X-ray scanners, sniffer dogs – and a colossal shipment of drugs with a value beggaring belief.

At the heart of the story are magnetic lifters, the massive, circular steel plates attached to cranes to move scrap metal. [READ MORE…]