40,000 marijuana plants destroyed on Sugpon–Kibungan border
Police destroyed two marijuana plantations holding about 40,000 fully grown plants and 40 kilograms of dried leaves at the boundary of Sugpon, Ilocos Sur and Kibungan, Benguet, on 21 July 2026. The Ilocos regional police valued the destroyed marijuana at P12.8 million and reported no arrests.
🇵🇭 Boundary of Sugpon, Ilocos Sur and Kibungan, Benguet · Philippines
Police destroyed two marijuana plantations holding about 40,000 fully grown
plants and 40 kilograms of dried leaves with stalks at the boundary of Sugpon
town in Ilocos Sur and Kibungan town in Benguet on Tuesday, 21 July 2026.[1]The Ilocos regional police valued the destroyed marijuana at about P12.8
million.[1]The eradication was carried out by the Ilocos Sur Provincial Drug
Enforcement Unit and other law enforcement agencies, which burned the plants on
site and are still trying to identify the people who maintained the plantations.[2]
The operation was the largest of 71 anti-drug operations across the Ilocos
Region from 15 to 21 July 2026, in which police arrested 78 drug suspects.[2]No one was reported arrested over the two plantations, and no charges or court
proceedings against cultivators were disclosed.[1]
Photos and video
Photo published with the Daily Tribune report on the 21 July 2026 Sugpon–Kibungan eradication, which destroyed about 40,000 plants. Photo: Police Regional Office 1Photo details
No published figure was given for the area cleared by the two plantations.
The sources give no count of how many plants and how many kilos were in each of the two plantations.
The 40 kilograms of dried leaves with stalks is included in the P12.8 million combined value, with no separate value stated.
No one was reported arrested and no charges or owner of the land were identified.
Coordinates are for the Sugpon town centre as an approximation of the boundary area, not the exact plantation sites.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Daily Tribune: The same regional sweep led to the seizure of 261.838 grams of suspected shabu, 40,047.67 grams of dried marijuana leaves and the destruction of about 40,000 fully grown marijuana plants, police said.
Police confiscated 2,230 fully grown marijuana plants from three plantation sites in Kapangan, Benguet, which police valued at P446,000. The eradication was carried out separately by provincial operating units with no plantation arrests named.
Cordillera police destroyed 548,130 marijuana plants and 9,000 seedlings in 14 operations from 25 October to 1 November 2026, arresting six drug suspects. A parallel manhunt arrested 28 other fugitives, bringing the week's total reported arrests to 34.
Police destroyed three marijuana plantations in Kapangan and Kibungan, Benguet, on 30 October 2026, seizing 1,150 mature plants and 1,000 seedlings. Police valued the plants at P270,000 and burned them on site while seeking those responsible.
Kalinga police uprooted and burned 544,000 fully grown marijuana plants across seven sites in Barangay Loccong, Tinglayan, on 27 October 2026, an operation the provincial office valued at about ₱108.8 million. No cultivators were arrested.
