CONTINUING anti-narcotics operations by the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Friday resulted in the seizure of nearly P3.5 million worth of marijuana and shabu, PNP Officer-in-Charge, Lieutenant General Vicente D. Danao Jr. said yesterday.

The top cop said that part of that was an estimated P2.2 million worth of fully-grown marijuana plants and seedlings which were uprooted and destroyed by members of the Cordillera Police Regional Office with the help of the Naval Forces Northern Luzon and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

Lt. Gen. Danao said the Cordillera police headed by Brigadier Gen. Ronald O. Lee

stormed the large cannabis site in Sitio Nabuluan in Barangay Lacnog, Tabuk City in Kalinga where they uprooted more than 11,000 pieces of fully-grown marijuana plants.

All prohibited crops were torched on site. However, no arrests were made during the anti-marijuana raid.

In Bicol, members of the Police Regional Office 5 under Brig. Gen. Mario A. Reyes arrested a top drug personality in Masbate island during a buy-bust operation past 10 p.m. Friday.

Lt. Gen. Danao said that Saridon Tuazon alias ‘Popong,’49, was arrested after he sold drugs to an undercover officer in Purok in Bgy. Talabaan in Aroroy, Masbate. The buy-bust operation was conducted by operatives from the PRO5 Regional Drug Enforcement Unit and the Masbate Police Provincial Office.

Confiscated from the possession of the suspect were 13 heat-sealed plastic sachets containing some 50 grams of the so-called ‘poor man’s cocaine’ worth P340,000 and the marked money paid to him by the poseur.

The suspect is now being held at the Aroroy Municipal Police Station facing non-bailable cases for sale and possession of prohibited drugs under Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

In Bacolod City, local policemen hauled to jail 26-year old Pearl Je-ann Elera and Riegel Quimba,20, both considered as ‘high-value targets’ after they conspired to sell shabu to an undercover agent.

Lt. Gen. Danao said members of the Bacolod City Police Office under the PRO6 headed by Brig. Gen. Flynn E. Dongbo arrested the duo in Bgy. Punta Taytay. Confiscated from their possession were around P1.2 million worth of shabu.

The two are facing non-bailable RA 9165 cases.

“Despite the huge task of watching over the security of the recently-concluded national and local polls, our operatives have been relentlessly fulfilling their anti-criminality duties,”Danao said as he congratulated his men for their latest success in the anti-drug war. By ALFRED DALIZON