PIA Press Release
Monday, January 02, 2012 Lawmen step-up probe on marijuana plantations in Ilocos Sur–Benguet boundaryby Freddie G .Lazaro CAMP PRESIDENT QUIRINO, Ilocos Sur, Jan. 02 (PIA) -- Ilocos Sur police director, S/Supt. Noel B. Amoyen has ordered an intensified investigation on the identification of the owners and cultivators of the nine marijuana plantations discovered in the mountainous areas at the boundary of Ilocos Sur and Benguet provinces. This developed as the lawmen failed to arrest the suspects behind the propagation of the marijuana plants from the nine plantation sites during their two–day successive operations in the area. Amoyen recalled that last December 21, 2011, the joint elements from the police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) discovered and destroyed at least 30,000 fully grown marijuana plants in a one-hectare plantation at the hinterlands between sitio Nagawa, barangay Caoayan, Sugpon, Ilocos Sur and sitio Ginang, barangay Kayapa, Benguet province. On the following day, the lawmen uprooted 74,000 fully grown marijuana plants from eight plantation sites located at the boundary of barangay Licungan, Sugpon, Ilocos Sur and Kibungan, Benguet province. Amoyen said the total estimated value of the destroyed marijuana plants was estimated at P21 million based on the standard set by the Dangerous Drug Board (DDB). “We learned the existence of the nine marijuana plantations from our assets in the area,” Amoyen said. Police burned some of the uprooted marijuana plants at the site in the presence of local officials while some bundles were brought to the police provincial office for ceremonial burning next month. Our campaign against illegal drugs in the province has been intensified to further lessen the occurrence of crime here, Amoyen added. (ANL/FGL-PIA 1 Ilocos Sur) | 
