Suspected Sinaloa drug cartel member nabbed in Makati; P12-M worth of cocaine seized

BIG CATCH: Authorities make inventory of seized cocaine from a suspected member of the Sinaloa drug cartel. Photo by Julie M. Aurelio

(Updated 6:20 p.m.)

MANILA, Philippines – A Mexican national suspected to be part of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel was arrested on Sunday afternoon in Makati City after selling P12 million worth of cocaine to undercover agents.

Horacio Hernandez, 39, was collared by the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency outside a hotel on Makati Avenue, Barangay (village) Poblacion.

PDEA spokesperson Derrick Carreon said the suspect, a native of Sinaloa, Mexico, was temporarily staying at an apartment in Makati City.

The foreigner was described to be one of the top leaders of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel, which was first discovered to be operating in the country in 2013.

“He is number three or four in the cartel’s hierarchy, but he apparently wants to go independent and establish his own cartel here in Southeast Asia,” said Chief Insp. Roque Merdegia, AIDSOTF spokesperson.

The AIDSOTF and PDEA conducted the joint operation against Hernandez after months of surveillance and trying to lure him into a buy bust operation.

Seized from the suspect was 2.5 kilos of cocaine worth P12 million.

Merdegia said they first heard of Hernandez’s involvement in the Mexican drug cartel way back in December 2013, when authorities seized 84 kilos of shabu in Lipa City on Christmas Day. Three suspected members of the drug ring were arrested.

The AIDSOTF spokesperson said Hernandez has been in the country as early as 2013, establishing contacts, purportedly for his own drug cartel in Southeast Asia.

“We have been trying to trap him through a deal but he is very evasive. He does not want to deal in Philippine currency, he only accepts American dollars,” Merdegia said.

A tipster managed to get the anti-narcotics operatives through to Hernandez, promising that the suspect will be paid in American dollars.

On Sunday afternoon, a buy bust operation was set for 2:30 p.m. at the parking lot of the Berjaya Hotel on Makati Avenue.

The suspect met with an undercover agent posing as a buyer inside a sedan parked at the hotel, after which Hernandez looked over the boodle money of $ 120,000.

Merdegia said the suspect was arrested as he handed over the cocaine, contained in several plastic bags, to the undercover agent inside the car.

He added that the cocaine was possibly smuggled into the country and that it is possibly connected to the Mexican drug cartel.

“We believe that this is not the only cocaine stash that he has, he has other accomplices who are now the subject of follow up operations,” the police official said.