PANGASINAN, Philippines – It wasn’t the police or narcotics agents who found them. It was three groups of fishermen who, within hours of each other on Thursday, June 5, pulled from the sea what authorities now believe to be hundreds of millions of pesos worth of shabu (meth).
On several occasions the same afternoon, fishermen stumbled on sacks containing white crystalline substances while navigating the high seas off the coastal towns of Agno and Bolinao in Pangasinan.
The reports were confirmed by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Isagani Nerez in an interview over Aksyon Radyo Pangasinan Friday morning, June 6.
The first incident occurred around 3 pm, when three fishermen from barangays Balingasay and Lucente 1st in Bolinao were roughly 30 nautical miles from shore. They spotted several vacuum-sealed packs, marked with Chinese characters, floating on seawater.
They took the sacks, returned to shore, and reported the discovery to barangay officials, who alerted the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Region I.
Following inspection and inventory, authorities estimated the recovered contraband to weigh around 130 kilograms, with a street value of approximately P884 million.
Later that same afternoon, in what authorities believe may be a related case, another group of three fishermen operating 19 nautical miles off Agno town recovered a white sack floating in the sea.
Curious, the fishermen opened the sack and found several vacuum-sealed silver and black plastic packages, marked with foreign characters and labeled “Freeze-dried Durian.”
Two of the packages, when opened, revealed a white crystalline substance believed to be shabu.
The fishermen brought the sack to shore and reported the find at 6 pm to barangay chairman Regie Ramos of Aloleng, Agno, who then notified the Agno Municipal Police Station.
It did not end there. In the neighboring town of Bani, fishermen also turned over several bundles of suspected shabu.
Bani Vice Mayor Gwen Palafox-Yamamoto said fishermen also handed over packs of suspected shabu weighing more than 30 kilograms. Authorities estimate the haul at P170 million.
Authorities are investigating the source of the contraband and potential links between the three discoveries.
Officials did not rule out the possibility that the drugs were either lost or deliberately discarded by smugglers navigating waters.
Nerez said the contraband may have been jettisoned from a vessel caught in stormy weather.
“Nakikita natin na baka timing ito sa masamang panahon, malalakas ang alon, kaya hindi nakapalaot ang susundo,” Nerez said.
(This may have been timed with the bad weather and strong waves, which prevented the pickup crew from setting out.)
He urged other fishermen to turn over any recovered packs containing suspected shabu, warning that more could surface in the coming days off the coasts of Pangasinan and nearby Zambales.
Nerez also confirmed that the packs found in Pangasinan are linked to the earlier recovery of 100 sacks of suspected shabu, worth P1.5 billion, off the coast of Bajo de Masinloc in Zambales. – Rappler.com