Default Thumbnail

CAR cops burn P28M marijuana plants in CAR

July 11, 2021 Alfred P. Dalizon 333 views

AN ESTIMATED P28 million worth of fully-grown marijuana plants and seedlings were uprooted and destroyed by agents of the Cordillera Police Regional Office in an anti-narcotics operation in Kalinga last Friday, Cordillera police director, Brigadier General Ronald O. Lee said.

In a report to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar, Lee said the cannabis plants were found in Barangay Loocong, Tinglayan.

Members of the Kalinga Police Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit, the Tinglayan Municipal Police Station and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) uprooted around 110,000 pieces of fully-grown marijuana plants and some 50 kilograms of cannabis stalks, all with a Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) value of P28 million at the site before pouring gas on them and setting them afire, Brig. Gen. Lee.

No arrest was reported during the operation.

Lee said officers trekked for hours before reaching the site. He added that unidentified persons hiding in the bushes also fired shots at the lawmen although nobody was hit.

“We are still in the process of identifying the suspects who fired shots at the lawmen involved in the marijuana eradication operation and would be filing criminal charges against them and the cultivators of the marijuana,” said Lee.

Gen. Eleazar vowed marijuana eradication operations would continue as part of the PNP’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs, especially now that the Duterte administration’s war on drugs only has a year to curb the proliferation of prohibited substances.

“Makakaasa ang publiko na patuloy ang operasyon ng pulisya, katuwang ang PDEA, sa pagsabat at pagsira ng mga taniman ng marijuana. Hindi lamang sa Cordillera Administrative Region ang aming pokus, pati ibang lugar ay ating binabantayan para mapatigil ang produksyon at bentahan ng marijuana,” the top cop said.

AUTHOR PROFILE