203 marijuana plants uprooted in Balamban

CEBU, Philippines - Police uprooted 203 fully grown marijuana plants amounting P40,600 in Barangay Gaas, Balamban yesterday afternoon. The operation was launched by the Provincial Intelligence Branch in coordination with the Special Reaction Unit.

 Superintendent Rodulfo Albotra, chief of the PIB, told The FREEMAN that the marijuana plants were planted on a steep portion of the mountain which made them difficult to uproot.

“That’s the style of the cultivators, aron tingale maglisod ang mga pulis sa pag-conduct og operation,” Albotra said.

However, the operatives failed to arrest the cultivators since nobody was around during the raid aside from an empty shanty situated on the opposite hill.

 Albotra said the operation came after the arrest of Mylen Baricuatro, 30, of Barangay Magsaysay last May 28. He said that during police interrogation, Baricuatro informed them of the other marijuana plantations, which prompted them to conduct surveillance in the area.

Baricuatro was the only one arrested during the buy-bust operation in the mountain barangay of Tabunan, Cebu City after her cohort jumped off the cliff and hid in the forest.

Seized from her were five kilograms of marijuana plants worth P250,000 to P400,000.

A police poseur-buyer pretended to buy a kilogram of marijuana but right after the transaction, the PIB operatives immediately arrested Baricuatro. There are other plantations, Albotra said, that are under surveillance, and one of them is located in Barangay Bayong.

“Even previous operations sa Bayong gyud kasagaran but we can’t consider it as a leading marijuana plantation in Balamban,” Albotra said.

The seized marijuana plants are now in the custody of the PIB.   - (THE FREEMAN)