1.5 tonnes of meth seized in one of PH’s largest maritime drug busts

National

THEY TRIED to stay off the radar — but not off the hook.

The Philippine Navy intercepted a fishing vessel off Luzon early Friday, seizing 1.5 tonnes of methamphetamine worth P10 billion in a major joint maritime drug operation.

The operation took place just before dawn, when two Navy gunboats stopped a suspicious fishing boat in open waters. Hidden on board was a massive load of methamphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as shabu.

The bust, carried out with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), led to the arrest of four individuals, including one foreign national.

In a report by Philippine Star, Commodore Edward de Sagon said the vessel’s movements and intelligence reports had raised red flags. He explained that the drugs were likely transferred from a larger ship to the fishing boat before the Navy moved in.

“We still don’t have the details of where (the drugs originated),” he said at a press briefing.

Navy spokesperson John Percie Alcos called it one of the biggest illegal drug seizures in the Navy’s history, highlighting the scale of the operation and the continuing role of the armed forces in the government’s anti-drug efforts.

This haul follows a wave of recent discoveries. The presidential palace reported that nearly 1.3 tonnes of meth, valued at roughly $152 million, were recently turned over by fishermen who found sealed drug packages drifting off the coasts of Zambales, Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, and Cagayan.

“The illegal drugs were turned over by fishermen who found them in sealed packages left floating in waters off Zambales, Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, and Cagayan (northern provinces),” the palace said in a statement.

Friday’s seizure is among the country’s biggest on record, second only to an April 2024 case in Batangas, where over two tonnes of meth were confiscated at a police checkpoint south of Manila.

Authorities continue to investigate the origin and destination of the latest shipment, as efforts intensify to disrupt drug trafficking routes through Philippine waters.(MyTVCebu)