P1.4-M worth imported cigarettes seized in Cotabato City

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The police will turn over this week to the Bureau of Customs the P1.4 million worth imported cigarettes seized in a nighttime anti-smuggling operation at a riverside barangay here just this weekend.

Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Sunday that they will immediately endorse the confiscated contraband, consisting of 74 large boxes of Fort brand cigarettes from Indonesia, to the BOC for its proper disposition based on government regulations.

The boxes containing P1.4 million worth of cigarettes were found neatly piled along a river in Barangay Kalanganan near the western beachfront of this city and were supposedly for delivery to local traders.

The cigarettes were abandoned by seafarers from Zamboanga del Sur when they sensed that a team from the Cotabato City Police Office were closing in, responding to reports by villagers about their presence in the area, unloading their merchandise from a small boat.

Villagers said the smugglers, who spoke to each other in the Tausug vernacular, had told them in Tagalog that their shipment of Indonesian-made cigarettes was from a seaside town in Zamboanga del Sur and even offered them consignment basis trading deals, at low price, if they intend to sell some in their barangay.