KIBUNGAN, Benguet April 20 – More than P13.2 million worth of dried marijuana leaves and stalks were destroyed by combined police operatives and anti-narcotics operatives during a marijuana eradication operation at Sitio Ganga, Poblacion, here, Sunday afternoon.
Police Col. Elmer Ragay, Provincial Director of the Benguet Provincial Police Office, said that the contraband was composed of some 10 sacks of dried marijuana leaves and stalks weighing more or less 110 kilos with a market value of over P13.2 million.
The government operating troops were supposed to conduct a marijuana eradication operation in the aforesaid area when they chanced upon the contraband that were already prepared for hauling and transport outside the municipality.
Ragay said that bulk of the confiscated contraband were burned on site while a portion of the same were brought by the operating troops for qualitative tests and for evidentiary purposes.
However, he admitted that no marijuana cultivator was arrested by the operating troops during the aforesaid operation as they were able to flee from the site prior to their arrival.
Kibungan has been one of the identified marijuana producing towns in the province before the municipality was cleared by the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) several years ago.
By Dexter A. See
