Agusan raid nets marijuana valued at P13M

WEED HAUL Policemen transport withered marijuana plants uprotted from a remote plantation in Loreto town, Agusan del Sur province. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

SAN FRANCISCO, AGUSAN DEL SUR—Police uprooted more than P13.7-million worth of marijuana plants in a raid on a 2.5-hectare plantation in Loreto town in Agusan del Sur province last week.

Senior Insp. Aldrin Salinas, Loreto police chief, said a team of policemen destroyed 29,000 marijuana plants in the first site and 25,000 in another area in the plantation, which he said had been abandoned for months.

No caretaker or grower was arrested during the raid.

Salinas said the raiding team, composed of policemen and soldiers, traveled on a rugged 61-kilometer road on board a military truck and trekked another 10 km to reach the sub-village of Mactan in Barangay Kasapa I, near the boundary of Bukidnon province.

This is the third biggest marijuana haul in this interior town situated along the Agusan River.

A few days after President Duterte assumed office on June 30, government troops hauled P26-million worth of marijuana plants in the same neighboring hinterland villages.

Loreto Mayor Ligaya Otaza said some “lumad” residents in the area have turned to growing marijuana from what used to be rice and corn farms because of the difficulty in transporting their produce to local markets.

Otaza said marijuana leaves could easily be carried using backpacks and sold. —CHRIS V. PANGANIBAN