P.5-M hashish seized at QC bus terminal

MANILA, Philippines - Police confiscated bricks of dried marijuana leaves packed in large boxes worth at least P500,000 at a bus terminal in Quezon City yesterday morning.

The boxes of marijuana were transported by bus all the way from Kalinga, police said.

One of the six boxes was damaged during transit, spilling out some of the marijuana leaves, according to Inspector Manuel Laderas.

“Its smell gave away the content of the boxes,” Laderas said in an interview.

He said a bus dispatcher at the terminal of Victory Liner in Kamias Road tipped off the nearby Traffic Sector 4 of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) in Kamuning at around 9 a.m., prompting Laderas to send a team to the bus terminal.

The confiscated illegal drugs weighed a total of 142 kilos, said QCPD director Senior Superintendent Richard Albano.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency placed the street value of marijuana at roughly P4,000 per kilo.

According to Albano, the six boxes were loaded onto the bus before it left Tabuk, Kalinga at around 5 p.m. last Saturday. 

He said the bus driver and conductor failed to identify the owner of the contraband as they were only informed of the names of the persons who were supposed to claim the marijuana.

QCPD deputy director for administration Senior Superintendent Joel Pagdilao said the supposed consignees of the boxes were Reynato Peralta and Maria Dolores Pacay.

The seized illegal drugs were turned over to the QCPD’s anti-drug unit for further investigation.