Reward offered for missing cocaine

Police arrange bricks of high-grade cocaine prior to being presented to the media at the Davao City Hall in Davao city in southern Philippines Monday, March 24, 2014. Drug Enforcement authorities said the illegal drug, which was discovered concealed in a containerized cargo Saturday, was valued at 300 million pesos ($6.6 million). AP

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The tough-talking mayor of this city is offering a P100,000 reward for each of the 13 missing bars of cocaine that finders would turn over, and the money would be given “without questions asked.”

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said he believed those who had possession of the cocaine bars might have mistaken them for soap or have taken the illegal drugs “out of curiosity.”

He said he believed the smuggled cocaine was not meant for the city but elsewhere since the people of Davao could not afford the drugs’ cost.

The drugs were found inside an empty container at the Sumifru yard in Barangay (village) Tibungco, Bunawan district, here.

“There’s no market for this here,” Duterte said. “It’s too expensive.”

Authorities said at least 64 bars of cocaine were believed to had been smuggled, but only 51 were recovered. The recovered drug haul costs P306 million, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Authority. A single bar costs P6 million.

Duterte said the origin of the cocaine or its destination remained a mystery.

Based on a manifesto, the empty container, owned by Maersk International, arrived in Manila from Hong  Kong on board MV Shenshen last Dec. 15. It was loaded to MV Muara, which arrived in Davao on Jan. 8.

Sumifru workers discovered the contraband more than two months later, on March 22.

“It will take time for the government to retrace [the source of the drugs] and it will have to go through the international police, but apparently, this has to be the work of an international syndicate,” Duterte said.

“It could be the Bamboo Triad or the Mexican connection, and if they have established connections, then, planet Earth is really in trouble,” Duterte said.

“The governments of this world will have to join together,” he said.

Even if it was not intended for Davao, the contraband’s discovery was still alarming, Duterte said.

“Even if these criminals are outside, the fact that they’re able to penetrate is already a cause for alarm,” Duterte said.

“I’m always alarmed by the quantity and quality of drugs coming into the city,” he added.

Joel Pernito, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group  regional chief, said some workers heeded Duterte’s call for the missing cocaine bricks to be turned over.

Pernito said the missing cocaine bricks could be worth at least P78 million.

He said the discovery of the cocaine was the second in a container owned by Maersk. In 2009, at least 16 kilograms of cocaine was found in a Maersk-owned container also in the city port.

He said the company would be investigated, too.

A police source said the container had been sitting in the Sumifru yard after passing through the Bureau of Customs.

“The presence of illegal drugs could have easily been detected by X-ray machines being used by customs police but, obviously, the van has been able to pass, as far as customs police are concerned,” the source said. Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao