Sun.Star: PNP seizes P1M worth of marijuana in Cordillera

Police seized some P1 million worth of marijuana in a series of anti-drug operations in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR) last week. Sun Star Baguio reported on Sunday that CAR regional director Chief Supt. Raul Gonzales said the latest operation was Aug. 1, at a checkpoint in Tabuk, Kalinga. The operation involved the Army’s 21st Infantry Battalion in Bantay, Tabuk, Kalinga, and the Kalinga police’s intelligence and anti-drugs units. At the time, they flagged down a passenger jeep plying the Bontoc-Tabuk route and discovered during inspection a yellow sack with 13 marijuana bricks weighing 8.75 kilos. Gonzales said the marijuana had a market value of P218,750. Driver Arthur Bucad Maiyao and conductor Edwin Baydon Loyod were questioned about the marijuana. An earlier operation last July 24 involved two plantations at Mangta, Sinacbat, Bakun Benquet where P390,000 worth of the illegal cannabis sativa plants were uprooted and destroyed. Bakun police uprooted 1,950 fully-grown marijuana plants in Mangta, Sinacbat, Bakun, Benguet on July 24. Gonzales said these were planted in two sites with a total land area of 600 square meters. No suspect or cultivator was arrested during the operations. The uprooted marijuana plants were burned on site while some samples were brought to the Bakun Police Office for proper disposition and evidentiary purposes. Gonzales emphasized that the accomplishments made by law enforcers may be credited to the initiative and cooperation of the general public. The third operation involved the seizure of P375,000 worth of marijuana at the Rising Sun bus terminal at Bontoc, Mountain Province. The confiscation was based on a tip from a concerned citizen on the presence of a box of marijuana that will be loaded on a Rising Bus unit. Joint elements of the Sagada and Bontoc Municipal Police Station went to the bus terminal in Bontoc and saw a box left abandoned by an unidentified suspect, who was believed to have left immediately towards Loc-ong, Bontoc upon sensing police presence in the area. The recovered box contained 15 bricks of dried marijuana leaves, stems and buds weighing more or less 15 kilograms with a market value of P375,000. - GMANews.TV