BAGUIO CITY- Anti-narcotics operatives are now zeroing into the heart of the marijuana trade in the Cordillera mountain region.
This as P21.6 million worth of marijuana plants and seedlings went up in smoke midday Thursday after three illicit plantation sites totaling to around 12,000 square meters were discovered by PDEA and Kalinga policemen in barangay Loccong, Tinglayan town in Kalinga since Tuesday.
“We will move towards the heart of these sites to destroy as many as we can, to cut if not effectively reduce the supply” PDEA-Cordillera Director Gil Cesario Castro stressed.
Earlier on Monday, some P12.780M worth of marijuana were also overran from four plantation sites in the same in barangay.
Dir. Castro indicated “this proactive approach is the tactical answer after hemp produce are being smuggled out of the region for eventual sale in the black market.”
Several attempts to smuggle out huge volumes of marijuana, either in brick form or tubular packaging, have been flagged by PDEA and police in the past several weeks.
Cordillera remains to be the biggest producer of marijuana from illicit plantations in difficult-to-reach hinterland areas, especially in Kalinga and Benguet provinces, accounting for at least 90 percent of the marijuana supply in the whole country. By Hent