‘Wider probe’ on cocaine found in ship bound for Batangas port
BUREAU of Customs (BOC) Acting Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz instructed the Intelligence Group Officer-in-Charge (OIC) and BOC Intelligence Service Director, Jeoffrey Tacio, to widen the probe on the discovery of a kilo of cocaine worth some P5.3 million found on board a foreign vessel bound for the Port of Batangas.
The cocaine, packed in brown paper and wrapped with packaging tape, was found in the engine compartment of a reefer container filled with agricultural products while the vessel, M/V Navios Tempo, of Liberian registration, was on transit from Singapore to Batangas on August 11, 2022.
The report by the ship’s captain said that a day earlier, they noticed that reefer container MNBU3577936 showed an “in-range fault” that prompted the ship’s crew to carry out reefer fault repair.
As the problem persisted, the captain ordered a more thorough inspection the next day, where they found the suspicious package in the right section of the evaporator fan motor compartment. The incident was immediately reported to the shipmaster, and the discovered package was placed in a secured box for safekeeping in the vessel’s bond locker.
Thru the US Department of Homeland Security, the bureau’s anti-illegal drugs task force (CAIDTF) was alerted on the ship’s arrival in Batangas on August 13, 2022.
Tacio bared that on the instruction of Ruiz, the BOC and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), along with the Enforcement Security Service (ESS), immediately formed a boarding party to inspect the vessel thoroughly.
The package was also immediately tested, which confirmed it to be cocaine.
Tacio reported they also inspected a total of 26 reefer vans on board the vessel, but they all turned negative for more illegal drugs.
The consignee’s name was provided to this writer, but customs officials requested that it not be named for the moment in order not to “jeopardize” the broader probe ordered by Ruiz.
The discovery of the cocaine came in the aftermath of the successful joint PDEA-BOC operation last August 12, 2022, in Pangasinan and La Union provinces that resulted in the recovery of 400 kilos of shabu worth P2.7 billion and the arrest of 6 suspects.
The operation was the first major drug bust under the Marcos administration.
