Manila: Floating “bricks” that turned out to be cocaine were found floating off northern Philippine waters, police reported.
Anti-narcotics agents said at least five bricks of suspected cocaine with an estimated street value of more than P30 million ($573,822) were found by local fishermen floating off the waters of Cagayan province.
Three bricks were found by two fishermen from Barangay Sanja in Aparri around 9 am on Monday (March 21, 2022), drifting between the seawaters of the towns of Abulug and Ballesteros, the Philippine National Police reported.
A day later, on Tuesday (March 22, 2022) two more bricks were found off Fuga village in the town of Aparri at around 10:15 am, the regional office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) reported.
All the bricks were found wrapped in sealed plastics with packaging tapes and black rubber and bore the logo of a professional Colombian football team.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief General Dionardo Carlos stated that their operatives initially responded to a report received from Brgy. Chairman Erwin Lobas of Barangay (village) Sanja, in Aparri town of Cagayan province.
The two fishermen who found the first set of floating packs were identified as Raymart Leste and Willard Labbao.
The items were brought to Regional Maritime Unit 2) for documentation and submitted to the Laboratory Section of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency office in Tuguegarao City.
Cocaine confirmed
Lab tests confirmed the initial suspicion that the packs were high-grade cocaine. The evidence is now in police custody for proper disposal.
General Carlos congratulated the local fishermen for their cooperation.
It’s not the first time crates of cocaine were found floating in Philippine territorial waters.
In 2019, over Php1 billion ($19.13 million) worth of cocaine bricks were found floating in Philippine waters by fishermen in three separate incidents — between February and July.
In April 2019, police found a cache of floating cocaine bricks valued at an estimated Php200 million after local fishermen in Surigao del Norte province alerted the authorities.
