LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Combined police operatives and anti-narcotics agents successfully destroyed approximately P1.3 million worth of marijuana plants and arrested a drug personality in separate anti-illegal drug operations in various parts of the province recently.
Police Col. Joseph Bayongasan, Provincial Director of the Benguet Provincial Police Office, said that said that simultaneous marijuana eradication operations conducted in the municipalities of Bakun and Kibungan resulted in the discovery of a total of 2,000 pieces of Fully Grown Marijuana Plants, 1,200 pieces of marijuana seedlings, and more or less (MOL) 7,000 grams of dried marijuana stalks with fruiting tops with an overall Standard Drug Price (SDP) of P1, 288,000.00.
The discovered marijuana plants were uprooted and burned onsite after proper documentation, while samples were taken and submitted to the Regional Forensic Unit-Cordillera. Further, an ongoing investigation is being conducted to identify possible marijuana cultivators.
These operations were successful with the collaborative efforts of operatives from Bakun Municipal Police Station (MPS), Kibungan MPS, Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit, Provincial Intelligence Unit (PDEU), Regional Intelligence Unit 14, Regional Intelligence Division, and PDEA-CAR.
Bayongasan disclosed that operatives of Buguias MPS, 1st Benguet Provincial Mobile Force Company, and PDEU- Benguet also arrested a 29-year-old male, listed as Street Level Individual in barangay Abatan, Buguias, after he sold one sachet of suspected shabu weighing MOL 0.16 grams with an SDP of P1,088.00 to an operative who acted as a poseur buyer.
The suspect and the confiscated evidence were brought to Buguias MPS for proper documentation and disposition, while charges for violation of R.A. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, are being filed against the suspect.
By Dexter A. See