Cocaine worth P1B seized in Caraga since February

DANGEROUS DRUGS Caraga policemen inspect the bricks of cocaine recovered in the region’s waters. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

SURIGAO CITY—Policemen in Caraga have recovered more than P1 billion worth of cocaine bricks off the region’s waters and along its shorelines since February.

Police Brig. Gen. Gilberto DC Cruz, Caraga police director, said 182 bricks of cocaine, weighing 227 kilograms and with an estimated value of P1.13 billion, had been turned over to the police by people who found them in the last two months in the provinces of Surigao del Sur, Surigao del Norte and Dinagat Islands.

The latest to be recovered were 18 bricks found in the waters off Lingig town in Surigao del Sur on April 30.

Jolan Pucot, 25, a fisherman from Barangay Handamayan in Lingig, found the bricks and reported these to the police, Cruz said.

Marks

Two days earlier, a resident of Libjo town on Dinagat Islands found two bricks of cocaine, each wrapped in plastic inside a black rubber bag. He surrendered the items to village officials who, in turn, handed them over to the Libjo police.

“Most of the turned-over cocaine bricks were marked  ‘Bugatti’ and a dollar sign. But the newly discovered cocaine in Lingig had the marking ‘Coca-Cola,’” Cruz said.

Police could not explain what these marks meant.

Inside a box

On Feb. 12, a fisherman, Gonie Curada, found a box floating along the shoreline of Sitio Habongan, Barangay Poblacion in Cagdianao town, also in Dinagat.

Police found 48 bricks, wrapped in duct tape and later confirmed to be cocaine, inside the box. The bricks weighed 48.2 kg and were valued at P250 million.

On Feb. 14 and 15, more cocaine bricks were discovered in the waters of Barangay Pacifico in San Isidro town on Siargao Island.

Police said they recovered 40 bricks of cocaine with an estimated value of P212 million, in San Isidro. —ERWIN M MASCARIÑAS