Police uprooted and destroyed 3,000 fully grown marijuana plants worth an estimated P600,000 in Sugpon town in this province on Sunday.
The plantation spans about 1,000 square meters in Sitio Ogiyet, Barangay Licungan, near the boundary with Barangay Tacadang at Benguet’s Kibungan town.
Police uprooted the plants, documented and inventoried them, then destroyed them by burning the illegal plants at the site.
The latest operation was part of continuing marijuana eradication programs in the mountainous areas of Sugpon, where authorities have repeatedly discovered cultivation sites this year.
In July, authorities reported destroying 23,000 fully grown marijuana plants worth P4.6 million from two plantations covering about 2,000 square meters in Barangay Licungan. Police said they found the plants in remote areas along the Ilocos Sur-Benguet boundary.
In June, separate operations in Sugpon destroyed 16,400 fully grown marijuana plants valued at about P3.28 million.
Another operation in May led to the seizure and destruction of 24,020 plants worth P4.8 million from 10 plantation sites in Barangays Caaoayan and Licungan.
Authorities also discovered four marijuana plantations in the Mt. Teba area of Barangay Licungan in late August, recovering about 4,000 seedlings and 660 mature plants valued at P292,000.
The repeated discoveries have kept Sugpon a focus of anti-drug operations, particularly in its rugged and difficult-to-reach areas near the Benguet boundary.