Cocaine possibly from Colombian drug cartel, says PDEA chief

PDEA agents record the packages of cocaine recovered in a coastal village in Caraga, Davao Oriental, on Sunday. NATHANIEL QUINONES/CONTRIBUTOR

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Director General Aaron Aquino said Tuesday that cocaine found along the country’s eastern seaboard could have come from a Colombian drug cartel.

“That is a big possibility,” Aquino told INQUIRER.net, saying that a test on cocaine found in waters off Sorsogon showed it contained ethyl acetate and methyl ethyl ketone — two solvents traditionally used by Colombian drug manufacturers.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier said the Medellin group of Colombia had infiltrated the country, citing recent cocaine discoveries in different provinces.

“Colombia was mentioned by the President because the drug profiling of the sample of cocaine that was discovered in Matnog, Sorsogon, [pointed] to traditionally Colombian methodology,” Aquino said.

He said probers were looking into the possibility that other international drug syndicates were behind the cocaine find.

“Other samples will undergo the same test to validate the source country and method of production,” Aquino said.

As of Sunday, authorities have recovered 164.81909 kilos of cocaine worth P871,654,226 since the first discovery on February 10. /cbb

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