The country is “in danger” amid the involvement of the Medellin drug cartel of Colombia in local cocaine trafficking operations, President Duterte warned last Monday.
The President recognized the threat posed by the foreign drug syndicate following the recent discovery of several cocaine packages in the country’s waters.
“We are facing a serious problem. Pumasok na ang cartel Medellin, Colombia kaya nga marami na naman makikita cocaine,” Duterte said during the national assembly of barangay leaders in Pasay City. “We are in danger because on the right side ang Mexico pati ang Medellin pati ang Colombia pumapasok cocaine,” he added
Duterte, who has vowed a “harsher” war on illegal drugs, previously raised concern that the Sinaloa Cartel of Mexico and the Bamboo Triad of Asia have expanded illegal drug operations in the country. He claimed that illegal drugs were cooked in trawlers floating at sea and eventually thrown overboard to be recovered by drug dealers with the help of Global Positioning System.
Recently, authorities recovered blocks of cocaine in the coastlines of some provinces, triggering speculations that the country has become a transshipment point of such illegal drug. The illegal packages were reportedly found in Surigao del Sur, Aurora, Davao Oriental, and Dinagat Islands.
The President admitted the government has difficulty guarding the country’s vast shoreline due to insufficient resources. But he assured the public that the government would take action to prevent groups from smuggling illegal drugs into the country.
“Dito, ngayon makikita mo kung lumulutang, shabu, cocaine. At mahirap ang Pilipinas because tayo ang pinaka-mahabang shoreline. Kasi island for island ‘yan ganun. Hindi naman straight ‘yan. Dito, dito, dito. Very porous,” he said.
“Seven thousand islands ang Pilipinas. Hindi kagaya ng America na isang stretch lang. Dalawang submarino lang mag-ganunan. Dito island for island wala tayo. Kulang tayo. So I cannot afford na may isang patrol dito, for island for island. Ganun kahirap. So I have to do something about it. I’m just warning,” he said.
The President threatened anew to eliminate drug traffickers regardless of their nationality. He maintained that his last three years in office would be a “dangerous” period for those involved in the narcotics trade.
“I promise you that at this time of our national life, it is the time during my time that it would be very, very dangerous for anybody to do drugs,” he said. “Whether as a drug lord, wala akong pakialam kung galing kang China, galing kang Taiwan, galing kang Malaysia. ‘Pag pumunta kayo dito at ginawa ninyo ‘yan, papatayin ko talaga kayo,” he said.
The chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency concurred with the President’s declaration that the Sinaloa Cartel is now in the country.
Director General Aaron Aquino explained the profiling of cocaine brick samples fished off Matnog, Sorsogon in 2018 resulted into the traditionally Columbian methodology. “Other samples will undergo same test to validate the source country and method of production,’’ Aquno said.
Aquino said if the solvent used in the production of cocaine is “ethyl ecetate and ethyl ketone,’’ then it is Columbian methodology.
Aquino also bared foreign drug syndicates are using the Philippines as a transshipment point for cocaine. He said drug cartels probably are using cocaine bricks as a diversionary tactic to ship a bigger bulk of illegal drugs into the country.
The Philippine National Police and PDEA have sent samples of the cocaine bricks found off the country’s shores to the United States Drug Enforcement Agency to determine their origin, Supt. Christian L. Rafols, spokesperson of the PNP Regional Office 13 (Caraga) said.
Rafols said the PNP national headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City and PDEA central office also in Quezon City are closely coordinating while awaiting the results.
“With the help of US DEA, we can possibly have an idea on what the dollar signs and other printed letters or markings in the found brick of cocaine properly wrapped with cellophane all inside fishnets,” Rafols said.
The PNP will destroy the recovered cocaine when the result or findings from the US DEA come out, the PRO 13 spokesperson added.
Chief Supt. Gilberto D.C. Cruz, director of PRO 13, has ordered police directors of Surigao del Sur, Surigao del Norte, and Dinagat Islands which face the Pacific Ocean to closely coordinate with the PNP Maritime Group, Philippine Coast Guard, and local government units for a joint patrol in their coastlines for possible floating cocaine. (Genalyn Kabiling with reports from Chito Chavez and Mike Crismundo)
