Cagayan cops looking for 17 kilos of cocaine

TUGUEGARAO CITY — Lawmen are scouring coastal villages in the province in a bid to recover an estimated 17 kilos of cocaine accidentally dropped by smugglers late last year and now believed being kept by fishermen.

Chief Superintendent Dominador Resos Jr., Cagayan Valley police director, issued the directive after his men seized two kilos of cocaine in the coastal town of Santa Ana last March 18.

The illegal drug was found in the possession of fishermen Absalom Tobias and Armando Soriano, who were both arrested and subsequently charged for illegal possession of prohibited substance with no bail recommended.

Resos said the 15 kilos of cocaine could be part of 20 kilos which an international syndicate, suspected to be a Hong Kong triad, accidentally dropped in the sea on their way to Europe or the United States in May last year.

Senior Superintendent Ricardo Padilla, provincial police director, said in a report that the cocaine seized in Santa Ana, estimated to be worth some P12 million, was packed in brick form when it was dug up near the town’s coastline.

Late last year, the Regional Police Mobile Group also dug up two kilos of cocaine in separate operations in Gonzaga, another coastal town. Two fishermen are now behind bars for keeping the cocaine.