Police have fished out 34 more bricks of cocaine off the waters of Surigao del Sur yesterday morning, the eighth cocaine recovery in the country since Feb. 10.
Senior Supt. Bernard Banac, spokesman of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said that recovery stemmed from reports of two fishermen who spotted the bricks floating in the seawaters of Tandag City.
It was recalled that for the past days, the Caraga regional police have been aggressive in its information campaign on the possible presence of cocaine bricks in the region following the recovery of more than 40 bricks in Dinagat Island and another more than 40 in Surigao del Norte.
“The PNP commends the good deed of two peace loving Filipinos for the recovery of suspected cocaine,” said Banac, referring to fishermen Ronnie Navales and Ryan Apelo. The two fishermen, Banac said, immediately sought police assistance after noticing the cocaine bricks similar to the ones being flashed in the media and being warned of by the police floating in the seawaters of Surigao del Sur.
Chief Supt. Gilbert Cruz, director of the Caraga regional police, said he immediately consolidated police forces for the recovery mission. All the cocaine bricks, he said, were recovered in the waters of Barangay Bungtod in Tandag City.
“The bricks have dollar sign that is similar with those recovered in Dinagat Island Province,” said Cruz.
Other cocaine bricks found in Surigao del Norte, Quezon, Camarines Sur, and Camarines Norte have different markings, names of expensive European cars like Lexus and Bugatti. Each brick weighs more or less one kilos. The estimated street value of the latest batch of cocaine recovered is P230 million.
Authorities earlier said that the markings are shipment code, noting that those recovered could be part of a big cocaine haul that were dumped in the Philippine waters and were supposed to be picked up for distribution in other countries.
Earlier, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director General Aaron Aquino said the floating cocaine incidents are merely diversionary tactics.
“While all government forces are focused on operations to retrieve the floating cocaine, we believe drug syndicates may take the opportunity to smuggle shabu,” said Aquino. “They were willing to sacrifice P125 million worth of cocaine to smuggle P11.15-billion worth of shabu. It is because the Philippines is not a cocaine-consuming country. The number one drug of choice here is shabu,” he added.
Aquino said the country is just being a transshipment point for illegal drugs with international drug syndicates dumping cocaine in our waters considering the lose security in our vast and porous shorelines. (Aaron Recuenco)
