P15M marijuana bricks seized from Kalinga crime group

BAGUIO CITY –– A hundred kilograms of dried marijuana worth over P15 million was seized from a local drug syndicate known as the ‘Cyrus Drug Group’ in a Kalinga police sting operation on Friday night (June 28) at Bulanao village in Tabuk City.

Caught transporting 100 neatly wrapped cannabis bricks were alleged syndicate leader Ceasar “Cyrus” Marngo, 35, and accomplices Joey Marngo, 28; Ganipis Baggas, 34, and driver Deo Agod, 23, all residents of the Kalinga town of Tinglayan.

The contraband was being driven in a van bound for Manila.

Cyrus Group operates in Kalinga and Metro Manila and is listed as a high-value target of the Philippine National Police-Drug Enforcement Group, according to Police Col. Job Russel Balaquit, Kalinga police director.

Marngo was first arrested in February 2013 in Quezon City for concealing 4.4 kilograms of dried marijuana in his backpack.

The seized illegal weed was supposed to be exported to New Zealand and Australia, but the charges against Marngo were dismissed.

Police said the Cyrus Group was also tagged as the exporter of 40 kilograms of dried marijuana leaves bound for shipment to Switzerland.

Marngo, however, was released in 2017 after his drug case was dismissed.

Balaquit said Marngo’s group has been processing marijuana into oil, which is sold as ingredients for vaping (smoking using electronic cigarettes).

P52M ‘weed’ burned

Meanwhile, joint police and drug enforcement operatives destroyed P52-million worth of marijuana at 11 plantation sites in Mt. Province and Kalinga in a three-day operation which ended Friday (June 28).

Two illegal weed farms at Mt. Ungyod, Betwagan village in the Mt. Province town of Sadanga containing 13,000 fully grown marijuana with a total market value of P2.6 million were destroyed.

In Loccong village at Tinglayan, 240,500 fully grown marijuana plants valued at P49.6 million were uprooted and burned on site in nine separate sites.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency lists marijuana as the second “drug of choice” by addicts and habitual drug users in the mountain region.

Tinglayan is regarded as the prime source of marijuana in the Cordillera region and is the source of drug traffickers operating and supplying as far as the Bicol region. (Editors: Leti Boniol / Jonathan P. Vicente)