CAMP COL. RAFAEL C. RODRIGUEZ, Butuan City – The Philippine National Police Regional Office 13 yesterday thanked residents and fishermen who played a key role in the discovery of a big cache of cocaine believed dropped by still unknown groups or individuals in the coastal areas in Dinagat Islands and Surigao del Norte.
Because of this, Chief Supt. Gilberto DC Cruz, PRO 13 director, offered one sack of rice for each cocaine brick that an individual could find and turn over to local police stations.
“The community has significantly contributed in the successful recovery of a total of 77 cocaine bricks with a total weight of 88.825 kilograms and total amount of P457,125,000,” Cruz said.
“We urged the community to continue supporting the PNP especially in our intensified campaign against illegal drugs and criminality. The long arm of the law will surely catch the persons or syndicate group behind the spread of this illegal substance,” Cruz said.
Local police successfully recovered P457,125,000 worth of cocaine in the shorelines of Dinagat Islands and Surigao del Norte last week.
Last Tuesday, the Cagdianao, Dinagat Islands Municipal Police Station recovered 37 bricks of cocaine weighing 48.825 kilograms with a Dangerous Drug Board value of P244,125,000 in the shoreline of Sitio Habongan, Barangay Poblacion, Cagdianao.
The cocaine cache was found after a fisherman from Purok 2 in the area reported and presented to the municipal police a brick containing white substance. Tests by the PNP regional office crime laboratory confirmed that it was cocaine.
Two days later, a resident of San Isidro, Dinagat Islands reported to the local police the presence of rectangle-shaped objects in the shoreline of Barangay Pacifico. The coastline interdiction operation conducted by local police resulted in the recovery of 27 bricks of cocaine.
A follow-up operation conducted the day after by the PRO 13 led by Cruz, together with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Region 13 personnel, resulted in the recovery of another 13 bricks of cocaine.
The two operations yielded a total of 40 bricks weighing 40 kilos with a DDB value of P212,000,000.
The cocaine bricks were labeled with “3B Bugatti.”
