Lorega buy-bust yields P300K marijuana leaves, nets man from Guadalupe

A man from Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City is caught with kilos of marijuana in Barangay Lorega, Cebu City. | Photo courtesy of Parian Police Station

CEBU CITY, Philippines — A 23-year-old man landed in jail after he was caught with 2.5 kilos of dried marijuana leaves, which is worth P300,000, in Barangay Lorega in Cebu City on Saturday dawn, February 12, 2022.

Police identified the arrested suspect as John Paul Datan, 23, a resident of Sitio Yurico, Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City, during a buy-bust operation in Barangay Lorega.

Police Major Albert Quilitorio, station commander of Parian Police Station, said that Datan was caught with 17 sachets, 9 medium packs and 1 large pack believed to contain dried marijuana leaves which weighed 2.5 kilos.

Quilitorio said the dried marijuana leaves had a market value of P300,000.

Police confiscate 2.5 kilos of suspected dried marijuana leaves from a 23-year-old man in Barangay Lorega, Cebu City on Saturday dawn, February 12, 2022. | Photo courtesy of Parian Police Station

He said that they started monitoring Datan as part of a followup investigation of previous operations on dried marijuana proliferation.

After monitoring the suspect for a week, Quilitorio said they then conducted a buy-bust operation against Datan.

He said that they only bought a sachet of dried marijuana leaves worth P300 during the operation and they later found out that Datan had more of the illegal items inside his backpack.

These included a large plastic pack of suspected dried marijuana leaves that weighed at least a kilo.

“Ang atoang gipalit sa iya gamay ra, worth 300 ra. Mao na pagkakita naa syay bag unya didto sa iyang bag naay usa ka kilo gyud and the rest gibahin bahin na nya…Kadtong gibahin bahin na nya, naa natoy tag-iya, unya nang isa ka kilo bahin bahinun pa niya, Quilitorio said.

(We only bought P300 worth of dried marijuana from him. When we saw a bag and checked it later, we found a pack kilo [of the dried marijuana leaves]. The other pack were already divided in separate sachets and packs, which already had owners. The other large pack was not divided yet.)

Quilitorio said that based on the investigation, Datan could allegedly dispose of at least a kilo of dried marijuana leaves in a week to the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu and some areas of Cebu province.

He said that Datan had already been a while in this illegal business.

He also said that the source of the dried marijuana leaves was in Luzon, which they were trying to locate.

“Padala ra ni sya (courier) unya sya ang mo dispose. Naa syay contact sa [Luzon]. Halos kada semana maka dispose siya og usa ka kilo,” Quilitorio said.

(Items will be sent to him through courier express and he will be the one who will dispose of them. He had contact from Luzon…Every week, he could dispose of a kilo. )

With the results of their operation against Datan, Quilotorio said that they would intensify their operation against the proliferation of dried marijuana leaves in their areas of jurisdiction.

Barangays Day-as, Kamagayan, Lorega, Pari-an, San Antonio, T. Padilla, and Zapatera are villages under the jurisdiction of Parian Police Station.

“Ako karon ra ko nakadakop aning kadako nga volume ani sa marijuana kay feeling namo padulong naman nig kawala, pero na surprise lang kami nga marijuana nag exist gihapon … sa kadako sa among nakuha, so daghan pa gyud ang mogamit,” he added.

( I only confiscated this huge volume of marijuana just now because we felt that it is starting to be out of the market. But we got surprised that marijuana is still existing. Of the huge volume that we confiscated, then this is still in demand.)

Datan is detained at the Parian Police Station pending the filing of charges.

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