142 kilos of marijuana found on bus

PART of the 142 kilos of marijuana bricks seized from a bus terminal in Quezon City by the police after the drugs were discovered by bus personnel. ROMY HOMILLADA

The police on Sunday seized 142 kilos of marijuana valued at over P700,000 after the drugs were discovered by accident at a bus station on Edsa, Quezon City.

The dried marijuana bricks which had been packed into six large boxes were addressed to Ma. Dolores Pakay and Renato Peralta, said Inspector Manuel Laderas, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Kamuning traffic sector head.

According to him, the drugs were discovered at 9 a.m. after one of the boxes fell apart as it was  being unloaded from a Victory Liner bus that had just arrived from Tabuk City in Kalinga province.

“Several dried leaves fell [from] the box which made the bus terminal personnel suspicious. They discovered the marijuana bricks when they opened the boxes,” the traffic sector chief told the Inquirer, adding that the cargo had not been brought  to Metro Manila by a bus passenger.

Last minute addition

According to Victory bus dispatcher Henry Marpa, the six boxes were loaded onto

the bus shortly as it was leaving the Victory Liner terminal in Kalinga.

He said that the bus conductor was asked by a man, who had introduced himself as an employee of a shipping company in Tabuk City, to bring the boxes to Manila where these would be picked up by one of the persons whose names were written on the boxes. The man was charged a fee of P200 to have the cargo transported, Marpa added.

After authorities were informed about the find, a police team was sent to the bus terminal at the corner of Edsa and East Avenue where for several hours, its members waited for anyone to claim the boxes. However, no one came to pick up the drugs, the QCPD police official said.

Senior Insp. Robert Razon, head of the QCPD District Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group, said it was likely that the names on the boxes were fictitious. He said that two months ago, the same modus operandi was used to transport marijuana on a Metro Manila-bound bus.

Same modus operandi

“The cargo of marijuana also came from Northern Luzon. The boxes were also marked with the name of the consignee which was fictitious,” Razon told the Inquirer, adding that marijuana dealers often transported their wares on passenger buses.

He said that sometimes, the illegal drug which sells at P5,000 per kilo goes undetected by terminal employees.

“The bus companies cannot be held criminally liable because its employees can always say that they did not know about the illegal cargo. But they have a responsibility to make sure that their passengers are safe by avoiding accepting cargo which has not been properly inspected,” he added.

Razon said that an investigation was underway to determine the group behind the transport of the illegal cargo.