P5.5-M marijuana seized in Benguet

By Dexter A. See

KIBUNGAN, Benguet – Drug dealers eluded arrest but abandoned around P5.5 million worth of marijuana bricks during a buy-bust operation in Barangay Mocgao here last week.

Chief Supt. Samuel B. Diciano, deputy regional director for administration of Cordillera police, said the confiscated illegal hemp was packed in 19 small sacks and weighed close to 150 kilos.

Police and anti-narcotics operatives seized the dried marijuana leaves in brick form but failed to arrest Jun Galate and Pacio Wan-aten, the two alleged dealers who abandoned the contraband after a gunshot rang out, apparently signaling that lawmen were in the area.

Diciano said the operatives had a difficult time cornering the suspects because the place of the handover of goods was a five-hour trek from the town proper here.

He said the suspects must have had a lookout, who spotted the operatives from the distance and signaled the suspects to leave the area.