Marijuana plantation raided in Benguet,La Union borders

La Trinidad, Benguet – Authorities swooped down over P28 million worth of marijuana plantations along the drug notorious Benguet-La Union upland borders over the weekend burning thousands of the illegal cannabis plant.

Some 18,500 fully grown marijuana plants pegged by the Dangerous Drugs Board to reach P3,700,000 and 6,350 marijuana seedlings valued at P254,000 were uprooted from 4,200 square meters and 1,260-square meter plantations, in sitios Tebteb and Blabalnag respectively, in Badeo, Kibungan town, Benguet. Some 25 kilos of dried marijuana leaves pegged at P625,000 were also found in the area.

A 31,000-square meter plantation in nearby Santol town in La Union where an estimated 114,000 fully grown marijuana plants valued at P22,800,000 were also uprooted as authorities hauled some 30 kilos of dried marijuana leaves from the same site.

Although no cultivator was collared, said PDEA-Cordillera director Chief Inspector Edgar Apalla, the eradication we carried out jointly with PDEA-Region 1, Police Regional Mobile Group – 1, La Union Police Provincial Mobile Group, 50th Infantry Battalion of the 503rd Brigade of the Philippine Army, La Union Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group, Military Intelligence Group – 1, and Tactical Operations Group – 1 of the 1st Air Division of the Philippine Air Force was rewarding as “we continue efforts to reduce the supply of the illegal plant in the market.”

Moreover, a pusher who hails from Kibungan town also in Benguet was held with P425,000 worth of marijuana in front of the Buyagan Elementary School in Eastern Buyagan , La Trinidad town, Benguet on Saturday. 

This was 10 days after the DDB handed over P1.5 million to the Municipal Government of Kibungan to start realizing sericulture as an alternative livelihood to marijuana cultivation in the area, said Apalla.

Randy Camada, 21, single, a high school graduate who hails from Palina, also in Kibungan was arrested by anti-narcotics agents.

He tried to sell 17 bricks or 17 kilos of marijuana dried leaves to a PDEA agent who acted as “poseur-buyer,” the PDEA said.

Cases for violations of Section 5 (Sale, Trading, Administration, Dispensation, Delivery, Distribution and Transportation of Dangerous Drugs and/or Controlled Precursors and Essential Chemicals) and Section 15 (Use of Dangerous Drugs) of RA 9165 (The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) were already filed before the Benguet Prosecutors Office against Camada.