CAMP Dangwa, La Trinidad, Benguet — As part of efforts to eradicate illegal drugs in Cordillera, Police Regional Office-Cordillera’s (PRO-COR) pre-Christmas illegal drugs operations led the arrest of one drug personality and destruction of more than P600,000 worth marijuana in Benguet.
In Kibungan, marijuana plants worth P630,000 were discovered in the sitios of Balbalnag, Tebteb and Yong-awan, all in Bgy. Badeo.
Operatives uprooted 2,500 fully grown marijuana plants with an estimated Standard Drug Price (SDP) of P500,000 planted in more or less 500 square meters land area and 3,250 marijuana seedlings with an estimated SDP of P130,00 planted in 650 square meters land area.
Operating personnel burned the uprooted marijuana plants on site while samples were brought for evidence tagging and inventory.
In La Trinidad, a buy bust in Bgy. Pico led to the arrest of Eduardo Dela Cruz Sotelo, 27, married, truck helper, native of Balagao, Tuao, Cagayan. Sotelo sold a sachet of suspected shabu weighing 0.76 gram with SDP of P5,168 to a police poseur-buyer.
PRO-COR Regional Director PBgen. R’win Pagkalinawan said PRO-COR will not stop in its marijuana eradication program.
The almost daily operation has targeted not only fully grown marijuana plants but also seedlings. Narcotics Detection Dogs (NDD) were also being randomly deployed in various border checkpoints in the Cordilleras to deter the transport of the illegal drugs in the region, Pagkalinawan said.
