TINGLAYAN, Kalinga — Joint police and anti-drug operatives destroyed an estimated P150 million worth of marijuana plants in the mountainous Barangay Loccong here on Wednesday, Aug. 12.
The Police Regional Office-Cordillera (PRO-CAR) said the operatives discovered around 750,000 fully grown marijuana plants in a plantation in the barangay.
Authorities valued the illegal crops at approximately P150 million based on the standard drug valuation used by law enforcement agencies.
The operation involved personnel from the Kalinga Police Provincial Office’s Provincial Intelligence Unit and Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit; the municipal police stations of Tinglayan, Balbalan, Lubuagan, and Tanudan; and the 1st and 2nd Kalinga Provincial Mobile Force Companies, in coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Kalinga.
The marijuana plants were uprooted and burned at the site after being properly documented, police said.
No arrests were reported, and authorities have yet to identify the owner or cultivators of the plantation.
Police said follow-up investigations and intensified patrol operations are continuing to identify those behind the illegal cultivation and locate other possible marijuana-growing sites in remote areas of the province.
Kalinga’s rugged and mountainous terrain has long been a focus of marijuana eradication operations, with law enforcement teams often trekking through difficult and isolated areas to reach cultivation sites.