‘Marijuana queens’ nabbed in buy-bust

CAMP GEN OSCAR FLORENDO, La Union – Two women, tagged as marijuana queens of Ilocos, were arrested in entrapment operations conducted by the joint operatives of the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division (RIID) and the Regional Mobile Group (RMG) in the towns of Sudipen, La Union and Alilem, Ilocos Sur on Monday.

Ilocos Region police director Chief Supt. Leopoldo Bataoil named the two "marijuana queens" as 23-year-old Wilmalyn Madino Alacdis, a native of Kibungan, a known town in highland Benguet province where marijuana plantations abound, and 45-year-old Juliet Pagaden from Alilem town, Ilocos Sur.

Alacdis was arrested at 10:30 a.m. in Ipet, Sudipen, La Union while Pagaden was caught in her house in Alilem at 12 noon the same day.

The RIID and RMG team, assisted by personnel from the police stations of Sudipen and Alilem, in coordination with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 1, confiscated from Alacdis two kilos of marijuana bricks and six kilos of dried marijuana from Pagaden.

Madino, who was caught by Region 1 policemen and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency operatives on Monday morning with two marijuana bricks that weighed two kilos, Bataoil claimed, is the supplier of marijuana in Region 1, Cordillera, Tarlac and as far as the National Capital Region and Cavite.

On that same day, Bataoil added, Pagaden was sent to jail when police armed with a search warrant arrested the latter in her home in Amilongan, Alilem town. Authorities seized six kilos of marijuana bricks from Pagaden’s home.

The confiscated items are worth P20, 000.

Bataoil said the suspects are believed to be members of a drug syndicate operating in various parts of Metro Manila, Tarlac, Cavite, Cordillera and the Ilocos regions.

He said the arrest of the suspects is a part of PRO1’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs.

The suspects were brought to the regional trial court in San Fernando City yesterday for the filling of criminal charges in violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.— With Jun Elias, Eva Visperas