P200-M cocaine found off Palawan
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—The Western Naval Command (WesNavCom) in this city has recovered yet another set of packages containing suspected illegal drugs floating in waters off Puerto Princesa on Saturday.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) provincial Director Christopher Torres on Sunday said that the latest recovery—the fourth within two weeks, was discovered by WesNavCom personnel some 2.22 kilometers (1.2 nautical miles) southeast of Puerto Princesa City, the provincial capital of Palawan, while conducting regular maritime patrol at the West Philippine Sea.
The latest recovery was the biggest so far in Palawan, Torres said, with each package weighing more than one kilogram and having an estimated street value of more or less P200 million.
The packages were inside two sacks, with each sack containing 18 packages, which were turned over by WesNavCom to the PDEA at the Naval Detachment Oyster Bay in Barangay Bahile.
Torres said the contraband was immediately subjected to an initial sampling test through a Raman spectrometer that yielded positive for cocaine hydrochloride.
“Based on the Dangerous Drug Board, cocaine has a street value of P5,300 per gram, so if we are going to estimate 36 packages (with one brick in each package) and one brick weighing more than 1 kilo, you can do the math,” he said.
No clues yet
While there were no indicators where the contraband came from or its destination, there is a possibility that the latest recovery is connected with the previous packages, Torres said.
“This is possibly connected to the first recoveries because they are within the same area,” he said.
“But just like what I said earlier, our previous seizures were shabu (crystal meth) and marijuana and this is the only [2nd] time that we recovered cocaine,” he added.
Authorities had earlier recovered nearly P80 million worth of drugs along the same waters. Packs of high-grade marijuana with a combined value of P20 million were found in these waters on Sept. 30 and Oct. 8, while packs of cocaine valued at P56 million were recovered on Oct. 9. The illicit drugs were found by fishermen who turned them over to local authorities.
Torres said the cocaine recovered on Sunday would be brought to their national office in Manila and subjected to profiling and forensic examination to determine the origin of the packages.
