P170.1-M worth of cigarettes seized in Sulu Navy operation

COTABATO CITY — A Navy team seized P170.1 million worth of imported cigarettes in a seaborne anti-smuggling operation a few miles off Parang town in Sulu on Friday, August 14.

Officials of the Naval Command Western Mindanao (NCWM) and Army Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, commander of the Western Mindanao Command, separately told reporters on Monday that the operation resulted in the confiscation of 695 large boxes of Indonesian-made cigarettes, costing P170.1 million. The operation was assisted by local government units in the neighboring provinces of Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.

Cagara said the Navy team involved in the operation also impounded the seacraft carrying the illegal merchandise and detained its crew, who were supposed to deliver the contraband to contacts in seaside towns in the provinces in Zamboanga peninsula in Region 9, Maguindanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro region and Sultan Kudarat in Region 12.

Radio reporters on Monday stated that the confiscated smuggled cigarettes are now in the custody of the  Bureau of Customs. 

Navy officials said the small seacraft carrying the imported cigarettes was immediately towed to a seaside command post of the NCWM, where its crew members are now undergoing procedural interrogation. NCWM officials placed the estimated value of the impounded wooden boat at no less than P1.5 million. 

The detained boatmen reportedly promised to identify the smugglers who hired them to transport the cigarettes to buyers in beachfront municipalities in Region 9, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Region 12.