Cops come across plantation, uproot 616 marijuana stalks

CEBU, Philippines - Policemen who were running after reported armed persons stumbled upon instead a plantation of marijuana in Barangay Liboron, Carmen town on Wednesday afternoon.

Inspector Philip John Libres, chief of Carmen Police Station, and six subordinates have uprooted at least 616 fully-grown stalks of marijuana during the operation.

The police officers were responding to a report about armed persons when they came across the marijuana plantation in Sitio Buli.

They failed to arrest the person behind the plantation as well as the alleged armed persons, but they are now investigating the men’s presence and their possible link to the marijuana.

Specimens of the uprooted marijuana were sent to the Regional Crime Laboratory Office-7 for examination.

Pusher arrested

Meanwhile, on the same day, a suspected drug pusher was arrested by the police in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Matab-ang, Toledo City.

Benjamin Toquero, 30 years old, was arrested by Toledo City Police Station personnel after he handed over a pack of suspected shabu to the poseur-buyer.

The police frisked the suspect and further confiscated from his possession 10 other sachets of suspected shabu.

The police also seized from the suspect an improvised shotgun with five live rounds.

The suspect will be charged for violation of Section 5, 11 and 12 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 and for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.  (FREEMAN)