P2 million worth of imported cigarettes seized in Lanao del Norte

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Policemen seized 50 boxes of imported cigarettes, costing P2 million, in an anti-smuggling operation in Barangay Tambo in Munai, Lanao del Norte on Saturday, May 23.

Local executives and officials of the Munai Municipal Police Station confirmed on Sunday the confiscation of the smuggled cigarettes, to be turned over to the Bureau of Customs for proper disposition.

The Indonesian-made cigarettes were piled inside a Toyota Revo and an Isuzu Crosswind that personnel of the 1^st Provincial Mobile Force Company of the Lanao del Norte Provincial Police Office intercepted in Barangay Tambo, then bound for buyers in different towns in the province.

Officials of the Police Regional Office 10 said unsuspecting policemen flagged down the two vehicles just for a routine inspection, but eventually found out that both were loaded with large boxes containing cigarettes from Indonesia.

The two drivers of the impounded vehicles carrying the contraband and a companion were immediately detained for procedural interrogation, according to radio reports on Sunday morning.

All three of them had confessed to police investigators that they were supposed to deliver the imported cigarettes to retailers in different towns in Lanao del Norte, a component-province of Region 10.