Government's anti-narcotics operatives seized more than P500 million worth of marijuana in a series of raids and buy-bust in Benguet and Kalinga provinces in the past 10 days.
Gen. Dionardo Carlos, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said the series of confiscation of marijuana were part of the Oplan Herodotus 2 which is a special operation of the PNP, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) , the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
The operations include raids on 70 marijuana plantation sites and the arrest of three cultivators and four men who were intercepted while trying to transport marijuana products outside the Cordillera Administrative Region.
In a checkpoint operation conducted in Lubuagan town of Kalinga, suspects Aldren Paul Cabanes Pacion and Jaymor Sacatani Eusebio were arrested after they yielded some P13 million worth of marijuana bricks.
Another checkpoint operation in Tabuk City yielded in the arrest of suspects Limuel Legaspi Alarde, 21, and Ralf King Gaffud Prado, 18. Seized from them were P1.2 million worth of marijuana bricks. A buy-bust operation conducted in Tabuk City also resulted in the arrest of Dexter Baligod and confiscation of another P1.2 million worth of marijuana bricks.