PDEA to focus anti-drug ops in Kalinga after big raid

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) said it will continue its anti-drug operations in Kalinga following a massive haul from a recent plantation raid.

Richard Allan Ricardo, director of the PDEA-CAR said anti-marijuana operations are focused on Kalinga province now after the 5-hectare, P157 million marijuana plantation raid by joint police and PDEA agents in Mount Bitalayongan in Luccong, Tinglayan town in Kalinga.

Anti-marijuana operations in Kalinga, Ricardo said, will continue. 

“Babalik kami,” the anti-narcotics agency director said after the biggest marijuana haul this year in the region and the country.

Cordillera police said the vast Kalinga marijuana plantations find last week was the first time again in several years, noting the success of the raids uncovers how large-scale marijuana production is in the province. 

The Cordillera hinterlands, the PDEA maintained, remain to be the biggest producer of marijuana in the country because of its conducive climate and terrain that poses difficulty among law enforcers to reach and detect early.

Ricardo said their find and hauls show how big the trade is. He did not provide figures, however.

Reportedly, since January alone, authorities in the Cordillera have seized P380 million worth of marijuana plants and derivatives.

Ricardo added that illegal cultivators here produce top qualities.

Earlier, a highly placed PDEA official said they are confirming via laboratory tests about the very good quality of marijuana produced in the Cordillera, which reportedly is comparable to the infamous Mexican hemp.

PDEA was not able to confirm if marijuana produce the Cordillera are shipped abroad because of its supposedly top quality.