Cocaine block found in waters off Catanduanes

A suspected block of cocaine with an estimated street-value of almost

15 million was found floating in the waters off Baras, Catanduanes by a fisherman Thursday afternoon.

According to Baras Municipal Police Station Officer-In-Charge Chief of Police (OIC-COP) Michael Albania, a fisherman discovered the item at around 11 a.m. on March 7.

The substance, weighing around 1 kg, was placed inside a black garbage bag wrapped with packaging tape.

Its estimated street-value is pegged at almost 15 million.

The cocaine block will be turned over to the Crime Laboratory for examination.

Albania said it could be part of the blocks of cocaine discovered off Bicol waters recently.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has recorded six incidents where the agency recovered blocks of the dangerous drug floating in Philippine waters. Some 92.78 kilograms of cocaine, in the form of blocks tightly sealed in brown packaging tape, were recovered in February. These were valued by PDEA at 1491.25 million.

Philippine authorities intercepted the biggest cocaine haul in December 2009 where 591 kilograms of the illegal drug worth 13.58 billion were found along the coast of Eastern Samar.

On February 10, PDEA seized the first cocaine package. A box full of cocaine worth 15.4 million was fished out by fishermen from the waters near Vinzons town in Camarines Norte.

On February 11, another fisherman found a brick of cocaine weighing 1.026 kilograms also near Vinzons.

The next day, 37 bricks of cocaine that weighed 48.825 kilograms and valued at 1244,125,000 were found by a fisherman on the shoreline of Sitio Habongan, Barangay Poblacion, Cagdianao, Dinagat.

On February 15, a police operation yielded 40 bricks of cocaine weighing 40 kilos and amounting to 1212,000,000.

Over 900 grams of cocaine were found on the shoreline of Barangay Bagumbayan, Paracale in Camarines Norte on February 16.

Another cocaine brick washed ashore in Quezon province on February 18. Police said it had similar markings as those recovered earlier in Camarines Norte.

Police authorities vowed to intensify their anti-illegal drug campaign and encouraged the locals to report similar incidents.