POLICEMEN recovered on Sunday 34 blocks of cocaine in the waters off Surigao del Sur, sustaining the Philippine National Police’s recovery of illegal drugs floating along the country’s shorelines.
The cocaine wrapped in plastic and with dollar signs was fished out at around 6:30 a.m. in the waters off Purok Santan, Barangay Bungtod, Tandag City, Surigao del Sur.
Chief Supt. Gilberto Cruz, Police Regional Office 13 (PRO 13) director, said the illegal drugs were seen floating in the seawater by fishermen Ronnie Navales and Ryan Apelo, who reported it to policemen.
Cruz and members of the Surigao del Sur Crime Laboratory made an inventory on-site in the presence of Mayor Alexander Pimentel of Tandag City.
“The bricks have dollar sign that is similar with those recovered in Dinagat Island Province,” said Cruz, adding the illegal drugs have an estimated worth of P230 million.
“Said recovery was the result of the information drive that encouraged fisherfolk to immediately report any suspicious bricks seen in seawaters which will be rewarded with a sack of rice per brick,” the PRO 13 said.
Policemen recovered during the past several days blocks of cocaine in the waters off Siargao and Dinagat Islands and Quezon and Camarines Norte provinces. The authorities were able to haul in the drugs following reports by fishermen.
PNP chief Director General Oscar D. Albayalde said earlier that they were expecting to recover more cocaine in waters around the country following the successive floating of the illegal drugs, some of which had a global positioning system.
The police are still working to identify the origins of the drugs and who were behind it, but Albayalde believed they could be part of a single block of drugs that were loosened and taken away by strong current.
Albayalde said the drugs have been in the waters for months or even a year, adding they may have been intended for the international market and not for the country.