P1-M marijuana seized at North Harbor

The Manila police foiled yesterday an attempt to smuggle 100 kilos of high-grade marijuana in a motorized banca onto a ship berthed at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) in North Harbor.

The interception also resulted in the arrest of Raul Molina, 42, and Lino Sabino, 48, boatman, of Baseco Compound, Port Area. Molina is confined at the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center for bullet wounds he suffered when he engaged the port’s security personnel in a running gunbattle with a .38 caliber pistol.

The contraband, packed into 90 bricks and sealed inside three large suitcases, has a street value of P1 million, according to Moriones police station chief Superintendent Jose Mario Espino.

An informant tipped off the port’s security personnel about the attempt to smuggle the illegal drugs out of the country through ocean-going vessels docked at the MICP, said retired police officer Romeo Romero, investigation chief of RVV Security System Inc. The firm exclusively handles security at the MICP.

With a surveillance camera, police officers and security personnel patrolled the coast of the MICP for suspicious boats. Later on, a motorized banca was spotted sailing in the MICP’s prohibited zone, prompting security personnel to chase it.

Sabino claimed he was not aware that he was transporting illegal drugs and Molina only hired him to drive the banca for P1,500. He added that he did not know which ofthe ships docked at the MICP they were supposed to board.

Espino said he is waiting for Molina’s condition to stabilize so he can be interrogated.

Espino admitted that police cannot go after smugglers of illegal drugs at the pier zones since they are private areas with their own security personnel.

“I have talked with the pier security personnel to monitor the activities of the berthed ships and to coordinate with the police to neutralize the syndicate engaged in smuggling of prohibited drugs through the pier zones,” he said.

Charges of illegal transport of prohibited drugs and illegal possession of a firearm were filed against the suspects.