Thirty-nine more bricks of cocaine have been found by fishermen on the shores of Gubat, Sorsogon, in yet another discovery that has been baffling the authorities.
READ: Cocaine blocks found off Sorsogon
According to a report of Marisol Abdurahman in Balitanghali on Wednesday, the bricks were estimated to be worth P218 million.
“The authorities went to the fishermen to check if the report was true, and it was,” Colonel Melecio Buslig of the Sorsogon Police said.
Meanwhile, authorities arrested a 65-year-old suspect and seized P10 million worth of shabu in a buy-bust operation in Pateros on Tuesday, National Capital Region Police Office Chief Guillermo Eleazar said.
Eleazar identified the suspect as Angelo Reyes, who based on the investigation is connected to a group of Chinese nationals engaged in the illegal drug trade, which operates in the southern part of Metro Manila and Laguna.
Reyes was arrested by the joint elements of NCRPO Regional Drug Enforcement Unit, Pateros Police Station and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-NCR in an anti-drug operation at 153 P. Rosales St., Alley 2, Unit 12, in Pateros.
Reyes will face charges for violation of Section 5 and 11 of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
According to the Philippine National Police, the bricks of cocaine may have come from Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.
Before this, millions of pesos worth of cocaine bricks were also found in the eastern seaboard of the country such as Isabela, Camarines Norte, Nueva Ecija, Davao Oriental, and Surigao del Norte.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said those bricks of cocaine were manufactured in fishing vessels and then thrown to the sea with a GPS tracker so the drug runners could locate them.
PNP chief Oscar Albayalde said those bricks of cocaine had the same packaging, which meant those could be coming from the same drug group.
President Rodrigo Duterte has said the notorious Columbian drug cartel Medellin is behind the incidents of cocaine bricks found floating in the eastern seaboard. With PNA
READ: Another cocaine package surfaces