Cops alarmed over entry of cocaine via Cagayan

TUGUEGARAO CITY — Police have expressed alarm over the entry of cocaine into the country through this northern region after elements of the regional mobile group intercepted a P15-million shipment of the illegal drug recently.

Superintendent Jovencio Carillo, head of the police regional mobile group based here, has ordered his men to closely monitor the northern coast of Cagayan where a drug syndicate tried to smuggle the cocaine bricks.

Carillo said he issued the directive after Chief Superintendent Dominador Resos Jr., regional police director, ordered them to neutralize the so-called "Camiguin gang" which could be behind the foiled smuggling of cocaine in Ziningan, Sta. Ana, Cagayan.

Weighing about two kilograms each, the cocaine bricks were originally thought to be metamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu. Tests by the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory at Camp Crame later showed they were cocaine.

This was the first-ever cocaine haul in northern Cagayan. It was also the most significant drug haul since a massive operation two years ago yielded several drums of shabu worth P1.1 billion.

In 1999, elements of the regional police, then under the leadership of Superintendent Thompson Lantion, now PNP director for police-community relations, intercepted several drums of shabu, including raw materials, in Calayan town in northern Cagayan.

The police also discovered that year a number of shabu laboratories, including one aboard a ship off Basco, Batanes.

Carillo said he is unsure whether those behind the "shabu pipeline" were also the ones who tried to smuggle the cocaine.

Police are unaware if there were any successful operations to smuggle cocaine bricks via the China-Taiwan-Calayan islands route.

Two suspects, identified as Abasalon Tobias and Armando Soriano, were arrested during the cocaine bust. They yielded a caliber .38 pistol and a handgrenade, and charged with violations of the Dangerous Drug Act (Republic Act 6425) and Presidential Decree 1866 for illegal possession of firearms.