SAN FRANCISCO ,Agusan del Sur— More than 23,000 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of P6 million were uprooted and destroyed by joint police, anti-drug, and military operatives in a remote village in Loreto town, Agusan del Sur, authorities said Sunday.
The eradication operation was conducted on Saturday, July 4, in a mountainous area of Barangay Kasapa 1 by personnel from the Police Regional Office in Caraga (PRO-13), the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), and the Philippine Army.
Brig. Gen. Marcial Mariano P. Magistrado IV, director of PRO-13, said the operation stemmed from intelligence information that led authorities to a marijuana plantation located about 207 kilometers from the Loreto Municipal Police Station.
Participating in the operation were personnel from the Loreto Municipal Police Station, the Agusan del Sur Provincial Intelligence Unit, PDEA-Agusan del Sur Provincial Office, the 2nd Agusan del Sur Provincial Mobile Force Company, and Alpha Company of the Philippine Army’s 60th Infantry Battalion.
Authorities said they uprooted approximately 23,431 fully grown marijuana plants spread across an estimated 16,000-square-meter plantation.
No arrests were made during the operation, although police said they have identified the person believed to have cultivated the illegal crop. Follow-up operations are underway to locate and apprehend the suspect.
Investigators collected representative samples of the marijuana plants for laboratory examination while the rest were burned at the site. The destruction was witnessed by a barangay kagawad and a member of the media to ensure transparency and compliance with standard operating procedures.
Magistrado said the operation dealt a significant blow to illegal drug activities in the region by preventing millions of pesos worth of marijuana from reaching the illegal market.
He said PRO-13 would continue conducting intelligence-driven anti-drug operations in coordination with PDEA, the military, and other law enforcement agencies to dismantle marijuana plantations and arrest those behind their cultivation.
Police also urged residents to remain vigilant and report suspected illegal drug activities, saying public cooperation remains crucial in sustaining the government’s campaign against illegal drugs in the Caraga region.
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