Recovered cocaine bricks could have been bound for Australia

The hundreds of kilos of cocaine bricks that were recovered off the waters of Mindanao and Luzon in the past two weeks could have been bound for Australia, and the small vessel that was supposed to deliver

the contraband might have met an accident at sea.

Director General Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said that they are now coordinating with their Australian counterpart to determine the 'signature' of the cocaine in order to compare if it with those being consumed by drug users in Australia.

"We will be giving specimen to our Australian counterparts because they told us that they can determine the signature to show where they were manufactured. According to them, cocaine has also some sort of a DNA that could determine where it was made and where it came from," said Albayalde.

What drew the interest of Philippine anti-narcotics officials, according to Albayalde, was when the Australian authorities disclosed the recovery of cocaine bricks in Papua New Guinea sometime June to September last year.

Since February 10, almost 200 cocaine bricks have been recovered from the shorelines, or off the waters of Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Dinagat Island, Davao Oriental, Quezon, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, and Aurora.

Authorities theorized that the container that was holding the cocaine bricks might have been damaged in the high seas.

High ranking anti-narcotics officials said that the cocaine bricks that were recovered were not intended for the Philippines since cocaine is too expensive for Filipino users. On the average, authorities said a gram of cocaine costs about 110,000.

Albayalde confirmed the statement, citing the ranking of cocaine use in the world has placed the Philippines as number 14 from the bottom of the list.

"So I don't think we have a market for those kilos of cocaine which have been so far recovered," said Albayalde.

And this was reinforced, according to him, by his talks with his Australian counterparts.

"Accordingly, the probability is that they were supposed to be delivered to Australia because the market there is good for cocaine," said Albayalde.

Damaged container

The initial theory of the authorities is that the container, or the tie that binds the cocaine may have been damaged in the high seas.

Sources explained that an accident, such as the container being damaged, is unlikely since the manufacturers or dealers may have already addressed any worsecase scenario while the contraband is at sea since it is very expensive.

Accident at sea

Yesterday, Albayalde said that Australian authorities believe that the yacht carrying the contraband might have met an accident while repacking the cocaine, or those who picked them up in the high seas might have deliberately dumped them after being chased by Coast Guard or Navy vessels.