P435K worth cigarettes seized in Lanao del Sur
Peace and Order • 12:30 PM Tue Oct 18, 2022
589
By:
John M. Unson
The confiscated smuggled cigarettes are now in the custody of the local police. (From Lanao del Sur PPO)
COTABATO CITY - The police confiscated P435,000 worth of smuggled cigarettes on Monday night in a coastal barangay in Malabang, Lanao del Sur.
Col. Jibin Bongcayao, director of the Lanao del Sur provincial police, said Tuesday boatmen unloading the 29 boxes of cigarettes with Indonesian brands at Barangay Boniga in Malabang hurriedly sailed away when they saw policemen approaching their location.
Personnel of the Malabang Municipal Police Station and the 2nd Provincial Mobile Force Company were dispatched to the seaside Barangay Boniga to check on reports by villagers about the unloading of smuggled cigarettes from a small boat, apparently for delivery to a buyer somewhere in Malabang.
“Indeed there was that contraband being unloaded from a small watercraft. The cigarettes in big boxes were left by the men who brought the merchandise there,” Bongcayao said.
He said the confiscated cigarettes are now in the custody of the local police, to be turned over to the Bureau of Customs for its disposition.