Joint police, military and anti-illegal drug operatives scored a big haul in its anti-illegal drugs campaign recently when it uprooted and burned large volume of cultivated marijuana at a discovered plantation concealed among the thick vegetations not far from the forested mountain ranges along the borders of the Agusan del Sur and Bukidnon provinces.

Reports from Agusan del Sur police reaching police regional headquarters at Camp Rafael C. Rodriguez stated that a joint team raided a marijuana plantation on the hinterlands of Sitio Tinkug, Barangay Casapa 1, La Paz, Agusan del Sur, 5:30 P.M. Monday.

The team gathered operatives coming from Agusan del Sur Police Provincial Office, Regional Public Safety Battalion personnel lead by PInsp. Archie Amores, Agusan del Sur Public Safety Company led by PCInsp. Romeo L. Ramos, La Paz Municipal Police Station personnel led by PInsp. Arvin Bolotano, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 13 agents led by Investigating Agent 5 Joel B. Plaza and a contingent from the Philippine Army led by Corporal Antonio Manser T. Morgadez, all under the direct supervision of Agusan del Sur Police Director PSSupt. Antonio B. Paguirigan.

In an interview with IA5 Joel B. Plaza, PDEA 13 deputy director this morning, he disclosed that the operation dubbed as “OPLAN DAHON 01-10” acted on persistent reports by some natives living near the area about the existence of the said marijuana plantation at the said place.

There were actually two areas according to Plaza, which were reported to be planted with Marijuana. The fields, he said had blended so well with the nearby thickets and forests which hid it from view, making it hardly observable by casual trekkers or from the air. Plaza said that when the lawmen reached the first smaller area where the prohibited plants were reportedly intercropped with upland rice, they found out that the marijuana plants were already uprooted.

They however were successful in their second raid at another bigger area when they discovered the marijuana plantation in a 2,000 square meter field. The operatives successfully uprooted 8,100 stems of fully grown Marijuana plants, estimated to amount to one million six hundred thousand pesos (P 1,600,000.00) in value when sold.

Unfortunately, nobody was around neither were anybody in sight during the uprooting of the marijuana plants.

According to Plaza, that the Marijuana harvests from the said plantation could have sufficiently supplied the drug demands, not only of the Caraga region but also of the neighboring provinces of Bukidnon, and Misamis and even as far as the Davao areas.

For now, Plaza said their next move is to determine who the tillers of the said field are and to conduct a deeper probe and to gather more evidences for the filing of appropriate charges in court.

Due to the largeness of the volume of the Marijuana haul, the bulk of the uprooted plants were burned at the plantation site after its documentation with 400 stems of uprooted marijuana were brought down by the group for evidence and laboratory examination purposes. (Press Release from PIA – Caraga)

Share on Facebook