Three Baguio Drug Traders Caught In P840K-worth MJ Smuggling Try

December 7, 2020 JUST IN

Three young drug traders trying to sneak passed a border control area along lower Magsaysay Ave., Sunday night at least 7 kilos of dried marijuana leaves worth P840,000.00 were outsmarted by Baguio policemen and PDEA-Baguio agents..

Manuel Sanchez Balbuena II, 22, a native of Balagtas, Bulacan but is living at #4 Sunnyside Fairview, Tacay Road, here; Kasmir Vince del Mundo Gile, 28, from KASMIR VINCE DEL MUNDO GILE, single, born on November 3 1992, 28 y/o, #17 Torres St., Middle Quezon Hill, here and Keihl Gio Paraan Baniqued, 22, living at #52 Lower QM, also here, were tipped off of their smuggling try prompting an interdiction operation that ended at the border control point along lower Magsaysay Ave. , said Baguio City police director Col. Allen Rae Co.

PDEA-Baguio City Officer Intelligence Agent 1 Reinier Tinong said they were tipped through SMS that the trio aboard of a black Toyota Fortuner SUV with plate number ZHX 404 coming from La Trinidad, Benguet’s capital, carrying the contraband enroute to Baguio City.

Authorities pitched up a checkpoint at the Baguio City limit and as thje SUV was flagged down, the driver instead sped towards the city, prompting policemen at the Quarantine Control Point a few meters away from the temporary checkpoint to stop and hold the vehicle.

Policemen requested the driver and passengers to roll down their windows and noticed 4 tubes covered with green wrappers. Another 3 more MJ stalks in tubes were seized from a bag inside the SUV.

PDEA-Cordillera regional director Gil Castro said the three were still apparently high on drugs as one of them was even smiling when caught. This operation’s success was a product of intelligence-based and inter-operabilty-oriented dragnet operation of PDEA Baguio, PDEA Land Transport Interdiction Unit, Baguio police in coordination with the Baguio Quarantine Control Team of Baguio City LGU, he beamed.

Artemio A. Dumlao