Philippine fishermen found more than 3 million dollars' worth of cocaine in a plastic container that they recovered while fishing, police said on Tuesday.

The fishermen had found the container off the coast of the Camarines Norte province on Sunday and brought it back to the nearby province of Quezon.

The fishermen turned the container over to police, who confirmed that it contained 27 1-kilogram packs of cocaine, said Rhoderick Armamento, the Quezon provincial police director.

Police recovered another 1-kilogram pack when they checked the area during follow-up operations on Monday, Armamento said.

The total worth of the seized drugs is 168 million pesos (3.2 million dollars), he added.

Similar recoveries of illegal drugs have been made in the past, prompting authorities to believe that drug syndicates are transporting narcotics via the country's porous coastline.

The country has been implementing an aggressive campaign against illegal drugs since President Rodrigo Duterte's first day in office on July 1, 2016. Since then, more than 4,200 illegal drugs suspects have been killed in operations, according to official statistics.

Rights groups estimate that death toll to be even higher, between 12,000 and 13,000 people, including victims suspected to have been murdered by hired or vigilante killers.