BY ANDREW A DOGAONG AND MIKE GUIMBATAN
BONTOC, Mt. Province – Police seized P25 million worth of marijuana in Mountain Province and Benguet last week while three alleged illegal drug traffickers were nabbed.
Police nabbed the drug pushers and seized from them some 742 kilos of dried marijuana plants worth P18.5 million night of Feb. 3 at Lagkangew, Callutit, Bontoc along the Bontoc – Tabuk national road. Bontoc police chief Senioir Insp. Julio Lizardo identified the suspects as Lina Banao of Buscalan, Tinglayan, Kalinga but residing at Quarry, Baguio City; Mario Dalacnas, of Bugnay, Tinglayan, Kalinga and Julius Alcido of Poblacion, Bauko, Mt. Province but a resident of Upper Pinget, Baguio.
Police named Banao as the alleged owner of the confiscated marijuana plants. Police investigation disclosed Banao hired Dalacnas and Alcido to get the prohibited drugs from a passenger jeepney plying the Bontoc – Tabuk route at Mamaga, Sadanga with the instruction to transport the same to Baguio.
Lizardo said night of Feb. 3 at about 10:30, while his team was manning a checkpoint at Lagkangew, Callutit, they flagged down a Hyundai Grace van with plate number XLB 832 owned by PCS Cargo Movers Networks Inc., SBPZ, Olongapo City, which turned out to be loaded with sacks of dried marijuana plants. Accompanying the contraband were Dalacnas and Alcido.
Lizardo said the eventual seizure of the van loaded with marijuana and the arrest of the suspects confirmed information he earlier received from their other law enforcement partners as tipped off by their agent that illegal drugs were about to be transported to Manila using the Tabuk – Bontoc road.
The confiscated illegal drug was inventories at the municipal plaza at 783 bricks of dried marijuana leaves, buds and seeds placed in 25 sacks weighing approximately 742 kilos valued at P18,550,000.
In a following mobile check point operation on Feb. 4, Banao who was on her way to Bontoc and supposed to follow the contraband to Baguio, was arrested by another team of Bontoc police with the help of Dalacnas.
The suspects are all detained at the Bontoc Police Station while a case for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act was filed against them at the provincial prosecutors office. The seized illegal drugs were turned over to the Regional Crime Laboratory at Camp Bado Dangwa, Benguet for further laboratory test and safe keeping.
Police reports also disclosed the illegal activities of Banao and her group such as transportation and sale of marijuana had been the subject of surveillance of personnel of various law enforcement agencies including the Station Anti-Illegal Drug – Special Operation Task Group of Taguig City, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency -CAR, Provincial Police Mobile Group of Benguet, 1611th of PPMG of Mt. Province and Bontoc Police Station.
In Benguet, marijuana plants worth some R11,040,000 were destroyed by police during a three-day marijuana-eradication drive in Benguet last week, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency reported. Supt. Joker Ticbayan Cuanso, acting regional director of PDEA, said 552,700 fully grown marijuana plants were uprooted and 20 kilos of dried marijuana leaves were seized on Jan. 29-31 by personnel of Cordillera PDEA, the 1603rd and 1604th Police Provincial Mobile Groups of Benguet and municipal police stations of Bakun, Kibungan and Kapangan and agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit.
The operation was carried out at 19 plantation sites with an estimated total land area of 72,600 square meters, Cuanso said. These were located at Sitios Amlawa, Kawang and Balbalnag of Badeo, and Sitio Lanepeo of Takadang, all in Kibungan, Benguet; Sitios Gusadan, Kinmayad, Leggab and Basangan of Kayapa in Bakun, Benguet; and at the boundaries of Benguet and La Union.
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