26 ARRESTED IN MARIJUANA PLANTATION RAID IN DAVAO SUR

DAVAO CITY - Government operatives arrested 26 persons during a raid
on a marijuana plantation in Malita, Davao del Sur, on Monday. It was
considered one of the biggest antidrug operations undertaken by
law-enforcement agencies in Southern Mindanao.

The alleged planters and caretakers of the plantation did not resist
arrest and turned in their weapons to the joint team of the Davao del
Sur provincial police, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)
111, the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime (PCTC)-East
Mindanao, Air Intel, Security Group 11 and the 25th Infantry Battalion.

The names of the suspects were withheld, but according to the
government-operated dxRP-Radyo ng Bayan, the police were also
withholding information on the identity of the "financier-traffickers,"
pending the filing of appropriate charges.

Supt. Nestor Quinsay, Davao del Sur police director, said the joint
team swooped down around 7 a.m. in sitio Dulao, barangay Demoloc,
Malita, near the boundaries of Sarangani and Malungon.

The operatives uprooted more than 1,200 marijuana plants worth P1
million.

"This is one of the biggest scores this year in Region 11 and is only
the starting point of a massive crackdown on marijuana plantations in
Davao del Sur and adjoining areas," he said.

The PDEA warned that other remote areas in Malita would be targeted in
succeeding operations.

Maj. Bruce Concepcion, head of the PCTC, said the unidentified
financiers of the plantation "may be the link between the planters and
the complicated maze of the distribution system that extends to the
international market."