Police recover 27 more cocaine bars in Davao City
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Police recovered 27 of the 40 missing cocaine bars believed to be part of the 64 cocaine bars that police learned were stitched at the ceiling of an empty container van inside the banana firm Sumifru container yard in Tibungco District here.
Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) regional director Joel Pernito said some workers heeded the call of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to turn over the missing items on Sunday, March 23, a day after 24 of the 64 cocaine bars were found in the Sumifru yard.
“As far as I know, there are still unaccounted for 13 kilos of cocaine, after some workers heeded the mayor’s call to turn over the missing bars,” said Chief Supt. Vicente Danao, city police director.
Pernito earlier said the police were tipped off about the cocaine shipment and the information they received included the volume of cocaine involved.
He said that at the estimated cost of P6 million for every bar, the remaining 13 missing cocaine bars could still fetch some P78 million.
Danao said authorities have been tracking 13 more missing bars (with each bar weighing one kilo) even as they were trying to determine the origin and destination of the cargoes.
He also clarified that there were 64 bars — not 65 as earlier reported — inside the container van.
But he said that what was recovered of the missing contraband still yielded more questions than answers, and that at present, authorities continued to dig up the source of the item and how it was able to get there.
He said this was the second time that high-grade cocaine was discovered inside a container by Maersk company, after the 16 kilos of cocaine were also discovered in its container in 2009.
He said the company should be investigated since the illegal drugs could not have found its way to the container van without the knowledge of someone in the company.
A police source also pointed out that the container van, where the contraband was found, was already hidden for some time inside the Sumifru yard after having passed the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
“The presence of illegal drugs could have easily been detected by the x-rays used by customs police but obviously, the van has been able to pass, as far as customs police is concerned,” the source said.
Workers discovered the contraband stitched inside the ceiling of the empty container van when they were about to load bananas for export.
Danao said police have been working hard to recover the 13 missing cocaine bars, which they would dispose of in public, to prevent them from being recycled.
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