Police search for more cocaine

Fisherman Aldrin Taharan was presented to media by Quezon police after yielding P21 millionworth of cocaine he found floating in the sea. PHOTO FROM QUEZON PNP

Police in Quezon province launched a massive search for shipments of high-grade cocaine possibly in possession of fishermen after the recovery of P21 million worth of the drug in the town of Infanta on Friday.

Senior Supt. Osmundo de Guzman, provincial police chief, said in a phone interview on Saturday that policemen, village watchmen and “informants” in every coastal town facing the Pacific Ocean had been tapped to keep an eye on cocaine shipments that could be part of the one found floating in Lamon Bay in April.

“We will recover them,” De Guzman said.

He said if the drugs were in the hands of fishermen “we will convince them to turn them over.”

Between April 15 and 22, fishermen from the island town of Perez, Quezon, found a total of 28 kilograms of cocaine, worth P280 million, and 16.5 liters of liquid chemical that could make about 13 kg of cocaine worth P130 million in Lamon Bay.

Tracking device

Another group of Quezon fishermen also found in the area a “sophisticated, high-tech” tracking device that was believed to be used to locate the shipments.

The 5-kg device, similar to a buoy with a plastic neon orange top, contained a GPS (global positioning system) instrument and a packet of silica gel that kept moisture off.

It was the first time that such a device was intercepted in Philippine waters, confirming suspicions that drug dealers have been transporting narcotics by sea, according to police.

On Friday, police arrested fisherman Aldrin Taharan, 48, in a buy-bust operation in the village of Dinahican in Infanta after he sold cocaine to an undercover government agent.

Authorities seized four packs of suspected cocaine weighing 4 kg and with an estimated street value of around P21.2 million from Taharan.

Chief Insp. Lowell Atienza, Infanta police chief, credited Supt. Vicente Cabatingan, former head of the regional police antidrug unit, for the arrest.

More cocaine

In a phone interview, Cabatingan, who was Lucena City police chief from February to early May, said he has long been monitoring cocaine shipments.

Cabatingan said his “assets” told him that “there are more” cocaine shipments in the hands of local fishermen.

Cabatingan is now head of the Bacoor police.

The 1,066-kilometer coastline of Quezon province had been known in the past to be a drop-off point for drug shipments.