Marijuana courier nabbed for not paying bus fare

BAGUIO CITY — If not for her refusal to pay the bus fare, a woman carrying marijuana would have slipped past authorities. But because she was reported by a bus attendant for not paying her fare, authorities nabbed her over the weekend.

The marijuana courier, who hail from a remote village in Kalinga province, was collared by authorities on Sunday as she was about to deliver 13 kilos of marijuana bricks to two persons in the city she reportedly did not even know.

Baguio City police chief Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez told reporters that Florence Bulagan Babag, 31, a native of Barangay Buscalan, Tinglayan town in Kalinga province was shaking with fear when accosted by policemen.

The policemen were reportedly alerted by the bus conductor of the Baguio-bound Rising Sun on Sunday afternoon where the suspected woman drug courier Babag rode.

When approached at the terminal here, the ,policemen from station 3 stumbled upon a big catch. Babag was delivering 13 kilos of marijuana bricks to buyers in the city.

The drug haul which was only packed inside a paper box was reportedly worth P260,000 according to the valuation of the Dangerous Drugs Board.

Babag claimed that she did not know the contents of the paper box, Precinct 7 Chief Senior Inspector Edward Cutiyog. But the police officer did not buy the story because even police officers who accosted Babag at the terminal noticed the strong smell of the dried marijuana leaves inside the box.

Police said the woman also insisted that she was only asked to deliver the paper box in front of the Maharlika Livelihood Center in the city.

Babag is now facing criminal charges for violating the illegal drugs law.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officials and agents here claim that marijuana has resurfaced to become the "drugs of choice" now because the price shabu had become so prohibitive.

PDEA-Cordillera agents three weeks ago also intercepted a big haul of marijuana bricks from a remote village in Benguet province, which is known for vast marijuana plantations. The marijuana bricks valued to reach over half a million pesos were about to be delivered to peddlers when nabbed by anti-narcotics agents.