PNP eyes foreign drug syndicates in Samar’s cocaine haul

BIG CATCH | Eastern Samar police officers conduct an inventory of the packs of cocaine found floating by a fisherman in the waters of Arteche town on March 8, 2024. (Photo from the Eastern Samar Police Provincial Office)

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Police authorities are looking into the possibility that foreign drug syndicates are using the Philippines as a transshipment point for drug smuggling after multimillion-peso worth of cocaine was found in the waters of Eastern Samar.

At least 20 sealed packs of cocaine were found floating in the waters of Arteche town on Friday by a local fisherman, who brought it to the town mayor, Roland Boie Evardone. The mayor then turned over the contraband to the provincial police.

The police, after authenticating the prohibited drug through a laboratory examination, said the cocaine totaled about 21 kilograms with a street value of P111.85 million.

“It’s possible that these drugs may have come from the South [American] area, and they are using the Philippines as transshipment points. These are not intended for local distribution because the market of cocaine here in the Philippines is quite small. The top abused drug here is still shabu (crystal meth),” PNP acting public affairs chief Col. Jean Fajardo said at a press briefing on Monday.

The discovery of cocaine in Arteche last week was the third major recovery in the waters of Samar Island since 2009.

From 2009 to the present, there were a total of 255 bricks of cocaine recovered in areas close to each other, Fajardo pointed out.

Elaborate funding

“We’re not 100-percent sure whether the source of the cocaine bricks recovered in 2009 and 2010 was the same source of the recovered drugs that we have now. Drug smuggling involves elaborate funding from drug syndicates, and there is a possibility that foreign drug traffickers have infiltrated the Philippine market,” she said.

Around 1.2 tons of cocaine worth P800 million were thrown off the waters of Northern and Eastern Samar provinces by a Chinese vessel in 2009. In 2018, some 25 packs of cocaine valued at P4 million were also found floating in the waters off Homonhon Island in Guiuan town in Eastern Samar.

READ: Bundles of cocaine found anew in waters off Samar Island

Fajardo said they are coordinating with foreign counterparts to strengthen cooperation against drug trafficking in the high seas.

For their part, she said the PNP, Philippine Coast Guard, and Philippine Navy are conducting patrols in the country’s waters to prevent drug smuggling at sea.