Mindanaotoday.com | P2.1-M smuggled cigarettes seized in Zambo City
By: Teofilo Garcia, Jr.
ZAMBOANGA CITY – Police and military operatives arrested a suspect and seized some PHP2.1 million worth of smuggled cigarettes while trying to slip past a checkpoint in this southern port city, an official said Monday.
Brig. Gen. Franco Simborio, Police Regional Office-9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) director, said Almasil Akili, 27, was arrested around 1:17 p.m. Saturday in Barangay Baliwasan here.
Akili was driving a van with heavily tinted windshield and loaded with smuggled cigarettes when flagged down and arrested as he tried to slip past a checkpoint, Simborio said.
Troops manning the checkpoint had been alerted as they received an information that smuggled cigarettes will be transported to the city proper for distribution to retailers, the police official said.
Authorities seized some 50 master cases and 50 reams of undocumented Fort cigarettes with an estimated value of PHP2.1 million.
The vehicle and its driver as well as the confiscated cigarettes were taken to the Zamboanga City Police Office’s Station 11 prior to their turnover to the Bureau of Customs, Simborio said.
According to Simborio, police and military personnel manning checkpoints here are already familiar with the various tactics employed by smugglers in transporting contraband, especially smuggled cigarettes.
These include, he said, concealing the smuggled cigarettes in styrofoam coolers, water containers, and in sacks of seaweeds. (PNA)
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