Authorities dug up some P900 million worth of shabu in a resort in a far-flung area of Claveria town in Cagayan, the biggest illegal drugs haul barely a week after the start of the Duterte administration which promised to end the illegal drugs problems in the country.
Director General Ronald dela Rosa, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said the seized 200 kilos of shabu were placed inside 180 plastic bags in seven black bag and one ice chest before they were buried some one meter deep in a resort in Barangay Culao.
The seven black bags have markings “Leah D”.
“The information was given by a tipster, I asked Colonel Ferro to go there and check and the information turned out to be positive,” said dela Rosa.
Senior Supt. Albert Ferro is the acting chief of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group of the PNP.
Dela Rosa admitted that he had the information about the contraband even before he formally assumes as PNP chief but only acted on it after he formally took over the PNP helm.
The location of the buried shabu was easily traced since the tipster provided the joint elements of the AIDG, the Bureau of Customs and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) with a marker of the exact location of the contraband.
At around 2 p.m. on Sunday, authorities were able to dig up the illegal drugs. They were later transported to Camp Crame.
Dela Rosa, however, did not give further details to the tipster, including the information as to how the tipster got hold of the information.
No one was arrested during the operation.
PDEA Director General Isidro Lapena, however, said that they still have some details that they could not divulge since there are on-going operations.
The illegal drugs are believed to be have been sneaked inside the country through ships. It was learned that Cagayan is one of the smuggling sites of illegal drugs in the country.
Dela Rosa said the illegal drugs were supposed to be transported by land to Binondo in Manila.
“As to the person or group to which these would be delivered are something that our informant is not privy of,” said dela Rosa.
This is the reason, according to dela Rosa, why a thorough investigation is being conducted – in order to identify where the illegal drugs came from and to whom they were supposed to be delivered.
“If the person who is supposed to get this is not on our high-value target, we will include him so that he would be killed,” said dela Rosa.
RESORT OWNER
Lapena said he had already tasked the local police of Claveria to conduct investigation to identify the owner of the lot where the drugs were dug up.
Dela Rosa, on other hand, explained that the present presumption is that the illegal drugs seized were owned by the owner of the lot where they dug up.
“That is why we task the chief of police (of Claveria) to locate and investigate this person. He may have reasons, this is the purpose of the investigation, to determine everything,” said dela Rosa.
The owner of the resort was later identified as Rene Dimaya. (AARON B. RECUENCO)