La Trinidad, Benguet, Philippines – Authorities swooped down on the first marijuana brick factory in Bakun town, purportedly one of the most notorious marijuana-producing towns in the highlands.
The factory, the first ever raided by authorities, which converted dried marijuana leaves and fruiting tops into bricks was raided at the crack of dawn on May 14 at remote Kayapa in Bakun.
PDEA-Cordillera officer-in-charge Chief Inspector Edgar Apalla said one large metallic quadrilateral cylinder,
six metallic square-sized separator plates and one wooden compressing jack, which are all marijuana brick processing paraphernalia, were found by joint PDEA and police operatives.
Such paraphernalia can convert at most 20 kilos of dried marijuana leaves and fruiting tops into 20 marijuana bricks in just a matter of minutes.
Authorities also torched down 40,600 full-grown marijuana plants and 4,000 marijuana seedlings pegged at P8.2 million.
These were uprooted from five different plantations estimated at 4,300 square meters near the marijuana brick processing site.
Authorities also seized six kilos of marijuana seeds worth P150,000 from plantations at sitios Nalusbo and Palicdan, also in Kayapa.
Apalla however lamented that the authorities found no one in the factory.
By Artemio A. Dumlao
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=468570&publicationSubCategoryId=200
