Over P1B in cocaine blocks recovered from PH waters since Feb — PNP
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:41:41 +0000
MORE than P1 billion worth of cocaine blocks have been recovered from the sea since February, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Tuesday.
Police Col. Bernard Banac, PNP spokesman, told reporters that 228.77 kilos of cocaine were seized, with a kilo costing P5 million each for a total of P1,153,074,226.
The latest incident occurred on Sunday when a fisherman discovered 40 blocks floating in Burgos, Surigao del Norte.
Cocaine blocks were also found in Quezon, Dinagat Island, Surigao del Sure, Camarines Norte, and Camarines Sur.
The PNP and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) previously said that they were working with their foreign counterparts to determine the source of these illegal drugs although both agencies claimed that the cocaine blocks were not intended for distribution in the Philippines as its market value was too high for majority of Filipino drug users.
PNP Chief General Oscar Albaylde previously said that these cocaine blocks could possibly have come from the Colombian cartel and were headed to Papua New Guinea and Australia.
They were dropped into the sea by the syndicate to evade arrest from sea patrols and planned to retrieve them later.
There were also speculations that these floating cocaine blocks were decoys for a bigger shipment of drugs that would land in the country.
President Rodrigo Duterte previously said that these floating cocaine blocks were from Colombian drug cartels. ROY NARRA
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