Smuggled cigarettes seized in Zamboanga

Philippine authorities seized some P7 million worth of cigarettes from Sabah in Malaysia as the local government imposed a strict campaign against smuggling here.

Coast Guard personnel, backed by soldiers and policemen, confiscated a cargo of 200 boxes of LS and Fort cigarettes from M/V Maria Rebecca Montenegro which arrived here last week.

“The joint operation resulted to the successful confiscation of 200 cases of banned tobacco products comprising 150 cases of LS and 50 cases of Fort cigarettes which were concealed at the cargo deck of the vessel and believed to have come from Tawau (town) in Sabah, Malaysia with an estimated market value of seven million pesos,” said Chief Inspector Helen Galvez, a regional police spokeswoman. She said the contraband is now with the Coast Guard and would be handed over to the Bureau of Customs while police investigation continues to determine the owner of the cargo.

Security forces also seized some P3.6 million of smuggled rice at a private wharf here recently. The wharf was just near an outpost of the maritime police, but personnel manning the post failed to detect the arrival of the smuggled rice which, according to Mayor Beng Climaco, who heads the Regional Peace and Order Council.

She called on the maritime police to help in the government’s relentless war on smuggling activities in Zamboanga. “I have called the attention of the agency (maritime police) and I sent a text message to PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde regarding the incident,” she said. She said the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Coast Guard and even the National Bureau of Investigation have been working closely curb smuggling. “The maritime police have yet to do something in this regard,” she said. (ZCH)