CV police on the lookout for “shipside smuggling”
The Police Regional Office-7 (PRO-7) has alerted all its intelligence officers in the region following the discovery of bricks of cocaine found floating in the waters off Arteche, Eastern Samar by a fisherman on March 8, 2024.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson for PRO-7, said that they have not received further information about the said cocaine discovery in the seawaters, but they do not want to be complacent.
With this, Pelare said instructions have been given out to intelligence officers to be on the lookout for such a scenario in Central Visayas.
"As of now, we have not received any reports, but we don't want to be complacent. Our intelligence monitoring is very crucial here (in Central Visayas)," he said.
Pelare also encourages the public to immediately report to the police if they find suspicious substances, like what the fisherman reportedly did when he spotted the bricks of suspected cocaine in the seawater.
Further, Pelare stated that they currently have strong and strategic coordination with other law enforcement agencies in the region, like the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA7), especially in the intelligence division of the PRO-7.
PDEA-7, for their part, also noted that there have been no reports so far of such cases in Central Visayas.
On the other hand, Intelligence Agent 3 Jonar Cuayzon, chief of Intelligence and Investigation of
PDEA-7, told the media that these cocaine bricks could possibly reach the region due to the proximity of regions 7 and 8.
He added that "shipside smuggling" is possible in region 8 as it is facing the East Pacific.
Cuayzon explained that "shipside smuggling" is a method of ferrying contraband through international containers, dropping them in the sea before the port, and placing a GPS to track its location.
Cuayzon, however, said he cannot conclude if the cocaine bricks were for the country or not, as an investigation is still being conducted by authorities in region 8.
Meanwhile, Leia Alcantara, information officer of PDEA-7, noted that seven grams of cocaine were confiscated last year. With this, she said they do not discount the possibility that there is a demand for cocaine in the region.