Republic of the Office of the President PHILIPPINE DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY NIA Northside Road, National Government Center . ,

PRESS RELEASE # 025/17 DATE : January 20, 2017 AUTHORITY : ISIDRO S LAPEÑA, PhD, CSEE Director General For more information, please text or call: Director DERRICK ARNOLD C. CARREON, CESE, Chief, Public Information Office Tel. No. 929-3244, 927-9702 Loc.131; Cell phone: 09159111585 ______

P12.5 MILLION WORTH OF COCAINE DISCOVERED INSIDE LOCKER

Twelve and a half million pesos worth of suspected cocaine was discovered inside a locker at a warehouse storage facility in Quezon City.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Isidro S. Lapeña said that illegal drug, weighing more or less 2.5 kilograms, was concealed inside two improvised ceramic boxes.

On January 18, 2017 at about 5:00 in the afternoon, joint elements of PDEA Intelligence and Investigation Service (PDEA-IIS) under Director Randy Pedroso, PDEA Regional Office-National Capital Region (PDEA RO-NCR) under Director Wilkins Villanueva and PDEA-International Cooperation and Foreign Affairs Service (PDEA- ICFAS) under Director Juliet Orozco, discovered the abandoned cocaine inside a locker located on the 4th floor of a building along EDSA in Barangay Veterans Village, Quezon City.

“Based on the information received from the Australian Federal Police, the storage locker is registered to a certain Corey Cornell Drew, an American citizen, whom they already arrested in Perth, Australia sometime in October 2016, for attempting to possess a marketable quantity of cocaine,” Lapeña said, adding that the operation was a result of close cooperation and timely coordination, and the regular exchange of vital intelligence information with PDEA’s counterparts in Australia.

Drew will be charged for violation of Section 11 (Possession of Dangerous Drugs), Article II of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. # # #