P19.3M cocaine recovered in Eastern Samar waters
TACLOBAN CITY—The sea has yet again became the drop-off point for a large amount of illegal drugs, this time off the coast of Hernani town in Eastern Samar, with six tightly wrapped packs of suspected cocaine with an estimated value of P19.3 million recovered in its waters on Thursday.
A fisherman recovered the suspected drugs weighing 3.64 kilograms, the Police Regional Office in Eastern Visayas (PRO-8) reported on Friday.
The 52-year-old fisherman from Barangay Carmen of Hernani was fishing at 11:45 a.m. when he spotted the packs floating in the sea.
Sensing the items could be illegal drugs, he brought them ashore and personally reported the find to the Hernani Municipal Police Station at 12:10 p.m.
Police, in coordination with barangay officials, secured the six packs of the suspected substance and sent them to the Regional Crime Laboratory based in Palo, Leyte.
On Friday, forensic examination confirmed the contents to be cocaine with an actual weight of 3,643.422 grams.
Timely reporting
PRO-8 director Brig. Gen. Jason Capoy commended the fisherman’s decisive action, calling it a clear example of effective police-community cooperation.
“Through timely reporting and cooperation between residents and our police personnel, we can intercept dangerous substances before they pose a threat to our people,” Capoy said in a statement.
Authorities were still tracing the source of the contraband and determine if it is connected to previous bricks of cocaine and sacks of “shabu” (crystal meth) discoveries in the waters of Eastern Visayas and Luzon, according to Police Maj. Analiza Armeza, the regional information officer of PRO-8.
“Investigation is still ongoing,” she said in an interview Friday.
Armeza added PRO-8 would be granting an undisclosed amount of cash, a sack of rice and a plaque of appreciation to the fisherman.
“This will encourage reporting and more turnover (if ever there will be other recoveries),” she said.
Seaborne
In 2024, a fisherman from Barangay Tangbo, Arteche, Eastern Samar, retrieved from the sea 21,105 grams of cocaine valued at P111.85 million.
The seas off Pangasinan, the Ilocos provinces, Zambales, Cagayan and Batanes were also the dumping point for over P8 billion worth of shabu in June.
On June 5, fishermen recovered total of 173 vacuum-sealed transparent plastic packs, all marked with Chinese characters valued at P844 million in the waters off the towns of Bolinao, Agno, and Bani in Pangasinan.
As of June 13, a total of 1,243.12 kilos of shabu worth P8,453,216,000 were surrendered to authorities after they were found floating by local fishers off the shores of Zambales, Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte. The figure was still to include the sacks of shabu found in Claveria, Cagayan, on June 14.
On June 19, a fisherman from Batanes found a sack filled with 24 vacuum-sealed packs of suspected shabu at the beach in Barangay Chanarian in the capital town Basco, which weighed 24.5 kilos. It had the markings “DAGUANYING” and valued at P166.6 million.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency had identified the international crime syndicate Sam Gor as the group responsible for dumping the more than 1 ton of shabu in the waters of these provinces.
