P2.6-M worth imported cigarettes seized in MagNorte
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 16:15 PM Wed Jul 3, 2024
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By:
John Felix Unson
The smuggled cigarettes seized by law-enforcement agents in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte on Monday shall be turned over to the Bureau of Customs for its disposition. (From PRO-BAR)
COTABATO CITY - Law-enforcement agents foiled on Monday an attempt by smugglers to deliver P2.6 million worth of cigarettes from Indonesia to contacts in Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.
Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Wednesday that personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station, led by Lt. Col. Samuel Roy Subsuban, and agents of the National Bureau of Investigation intercepted the van-type truck carrying 100 boxes of Indonesian-made cigarettes in Barangay Awang, on its way to buyers in the area and in other towns nearby.
The joint police-NBI anti-smuggling operation that resulted in the confiscation of the imported cigarettes was premised on reports by confidential tipsters about a plan by smugglers to deliver the illegal merchandise from the seaside Barangay Kinudalan in Lebak, Sultan Kudarat to retailers in Maguindanao del Norte.
Officials of the Datu Odin Sinsuat MPS and the NBI’s office in this city shall turn over the seized smuggled cigarettes to the Bureau of Customs for its disposition, according to Tanggawohn.
Operatives of the Datu Odin MPS had confiscated more than P30 million worth of imported cigarettes in one anti-smuggling operation after another in the past 15 months.