Over P332-M worth of cannabis burned down in Kalinga, Benguet

BAGUIO CITY —  Authorities had torched down P332.9 million worth of marijuana from illicit plantations in the mountains of Kalinga and Benguet since Sunday.

Cordillera police director Brig. Gen. David Peredo said that the marijuand were discovered and destroyed from six eradication operations in Kalinga and one in Benguet.

In Kalinga, the joint operatives of Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group, Special Operations Unit-Cordillera Administrative Region, Regional Drug Enforcement Unit, Kalinga Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit (PDEU), Tinglayan Municipal Police Station (MPS), 11 SAB PNP SAF, TOG2, Philippine Air Force, Philippine Coast Guard-Northeastern Luzon District, 503rd Brigade Philippine Army, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency-CAR, and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency- CAR discovered a total of ten marijuana plantations in barangays Loccong and Buscalan, both in Tinglayan where 1,454,000 pieces of fully grown marijuana plants and more or less 350 kilograms of stockpiled dried marijuana leaves with fruiting tops valued at P332.8 million.

Meanwhile, in Benguet, Bakun town policemen with anti-narcotics operatives of the Benguet police, Regional Intelligence Unit-14, and PDEA-CAR discovered a marijuana plantation site in Barangay Kayapa, Bakun planted with 500 pieces of full-grown marijuana reaching P100,000.

Peredo said that he has ordered investigators to find out who were behind the plantations to build up cases against them.