Brick of suspected cocaine found ashore in Mauban, Quezon

A brick of suspected cocaine was found ashore in a coastal barangay in Mauban, Quezon on Monday.

Police report said that a barangay tanod Johnel Escudero initially found the brick along the coastline boundary of Barangay Rosario and Barangay San Jose in the town on Monday morning.

He discovered a white substance inside the packaging when he tried to unwrap the brick.

Escudero reported the incident to other local officials who then coordinated with the police.

The brick was forwarded to a crime laboratory in the province for further examination.

The police units along other coastal areas of Quezon have been alerted for the possible presence of other packages of illegal drugs.

The incident was the most recent in a series of similar discoveries of floating blocks of cocaine in the waters off Camarines Norte, Dinagat Islands, and Siargao, according to a report by Mariz Umali on GMA News TV's State of the Nation with Jessica Soho.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said the total amount of recovered floating bricks of cocaine that weigh 90 kilos is about P500 million.

"The way they are packaged and even the net that was used and some ropes are practically the same so ina-assume natin na itong drugs na ito, it came from the same source. Nagkahiwa-hiwalay nga because of the water current," PDEA Director-General Aaron Aquino said.

Aquino said PDEA is coordinating with its international counterparts to identify the source of the illegal drugs.

Three possible drug syndicates were being considered including groups from Colombia, China, and the Golden Triangle (Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand). — Peewee Bacuno with Dona Magsino/LDF/BAP, GMA News