Man caught at town wharf with ‘marijuana’ in his bag

CEBU, Philippines – A man landed in jail after he was caught with alleged dried marijuana leaves while he was on his way to board a ship in Barangay San Sebastian, Samboan town on Monday.

Suspect Christopher Cuenca, 31, a native of Dipolog City, was held by security guards of Lite Shipping Company after packs of suspected dried marijuana were found inside his backpack during inspection.

Senior Police Officer 1 Bethoven Rocamora, chief investigator of Samboan Police Station, said passengers of Lite Shipping vessel would normally go through an alley where their things are checked.

“Sa dili pa sila mosakay, paablihanang bag, pero voluntary sa passenger. Iya (security guard) ra’ng tan-awn ang bag kung unsay sulod. Naa pu’y metal detector,” Rocamora said.

At past 6 p.m. on Monday, Cuenca reportedly submitted himself for an inspection.

The two inspection guards reportedly saw a lunch box inside Cuenca’s bag containing dried leaves and several other packs wrapped in a packing tape.

Suspecting that the dried leaves were marijuana, they invited Cuenca to the security office and called their manager, who then called for police assistance.

Samboan police personnel rushed to the wharf to check the report.

The police also believed that the dried leaves were marijuana and brought the suspect to the police station.

Rocamora said specimen of the confiscated evidence was sent to the PNP Crime Laboratory-7 for examination.

According to the suspect, he met a friend along Colon Street in Cebu City to hand him over fighting cocks from Dapitan.

He further said that his friends in Dapitan had earlier instructed him to pick up the dried leaves from a contact in Cebu and ferry it via Lite Shipping vessel.

To his surprise, he was arrested at the wharf.

Rocamora said they are now requesting for an X-ray machine from the port authority to efficiently catch individuals who try to smuggle illegal drugs as well as guns from Cebu to other parts of the country. —/NSA (FREEMAN)