BAGUIO CITY— Authorities have arrested three persons after yielding dried marijuana bricks worth PHP2.9 million in Ifugao province and Tarlac, a report said on Tuesday.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Cordillera Administrative Region (PDEA-CAR) information officer Rosel Sarmiento said 16 bricks and four in tubular form of marijuana worth PHP2.5 million were seized from Christian Quintos and Paul Andrei Galvez, both 21, from Bulacan.
The two were riding a bus which was intercepted during a checkpoint in Poblacion East, Lamut town in Ifugao on September 16. The two took the bus in Banaue town bound for Metro Manila.
Sarmiento said they received information from a concerned citizen which prompted them to set up a checkpoint manned by joint operatives of the PDEA-Ifugao, PDEA-Mt. Province, Ifugao Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit, Regional Mobile Force Battalion and the Banaue, Lamut and Bontoc municipal police.
On September 14, law enforcers also seized four bricks of dried marijuana leaves weighing four kilograms worth PHP480,000. The confiscation was a result of a follow-up operation that resulted in the arrest of Jerico Floralde, 21, in Tarlac.
Sarmiento said the operation was done following the arrest of 14 persons who were on board a van along Bontoc-Kalinga road in Mt. Province.
“The entrapment of these individuals transporting marijuana from Kalinga passing via Bontoc-Kalinga road or Banaue- Bontoc road are becoming successful due to strengthened trust through partnership and good sharing of intelligence information among law enforcement units and agencies in the area of responsibility,” Sarmiento said.
Sarmiento earlier said the modus operandi of marijuana sellers in the Metro Manila have shifted by tapping young people who pose as tourists and bring home with them marijuana./Liza Agoot (PNA)
