Police seize banned helmet shells in Jolo

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - - Police forces seized more than a hundred big boxes  of helmet shells estimated to be worth about P7 million from a trader who was trying to smuggle out the products out of Jolo, Sulu, security officials said.

Senior Superintendent Abrham Orbita, Sulu Police Provincial director, said the raid was hatched Saturday following tips from informant about the shipment of endangered marine product in a private warehouse in the Chinese Pier, Jolo.

Orbita said the police forces confiscated the helmet shells and arrested the trader identified as Peralta Pula, 60.

“The information provided by the informant was positive that endangered helmet shells were being packed for shipment to Cebu and Manila,” according to Orbita.

He said the combined police and personnel of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) hatched the raid and seized the endangered marine product and arrested Pula for violation of the Fishery code, specifically for poaching of endangered marine products.

The recovered marine products were turned over to the BFAR for proper disposition while cases have been prepared to be filed in court against Pula.

The BFAR and the Philippine National Police (PNP) have tightened the watch on the illegal trade of the banned sea shells following the recoveryin June 2011 in a warehouse here of some 30 to 40 tons of shells and black corals worth millions of pesos which were believed to be part of the P35-million worth of black corals intercepted in a Manila port.