Over P12-M worth of marijuana plants uprooted in Sulu

COTABATO CITY - Joint elements of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA- Sulu Provincial Office),  combined troops from Sulu Police Provincial Office Provincial Intelligence Unit, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) , Kalingalan Caluang Municipal Police Station, Regional Intelligence Unit (RIU) IX, 21st Infantry Battalion Philippine Army, 1st Provincial Mobile Force Company, 2nd Provincial Mobile Force Company (PMFC), 54th Special Action Company, 5th Special Action Battalion, 2nd Company Regional Mobile Force Battalion 14-B Sulu, seized six thousand pesos worth of dried marijuana leaves during a buy-bust operation that led to the discovery of a marijuana plantation.

Government forces then uprooted fifteen thousand marijuana plants in a 500-square-meter land area at Barangay Sitio Mangal-Mangal, Barangay Masjid Punjungan, Kalilangan Caluang, Sulu on Sunday.

However, upon the consummation of the transaction, the target personalities, who were later identified as Rene Onji, also known as Rene, and Amah Jul Onji, also known as Jul (both marijuana cultivators), were able to evade arrests after sensing the presence of the operatives, and later the operating team discovered the Marijuana Plantation Site of the above-mentioned place.

Confiscated were one (1) piece knot-tied green sando bag of dried marijuana leaves weighing more or less 50 grams worth ₱6,000.00, and uprooted more or less fifteen thousand fully grown marijuana plants with an estimated value of ₱12,900.000.

The suspects will be facing charges for violation of RA 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, and they remain at large.