Customs seizes arms shipment

Airport Customs District Collector Celso Templo issued yesterday a warrant of seizure and detention of a shipment of assorted firearms, including automatic assault rifles and ammunitions, for gross undervaluation. The shipment, flown in via a chartered flight from Yugoslavia, weighed 10,189 kgs. and included 1,400 pieces of cal. 40 and 9 mm handguns automatic assault rifles, and 550,000 bullets.

Templo said that based on the Blue Book of Gun Values, the importer identified as R. Espineli Trading had grossly undervalued the shipment by more than 50 percent.

While all the documents covering the importation were in order, Templo said he has ordered the seizure of the firearms because the firearms were grossly undervalued.

The shipment of firearms which was opened for inventory purposes showed that the guns were brand new, and were intended to be sold to the Philippine National Police which authorized its importation.

Customs police chief Col. Esmeralda Saplala has earlier ordered an alert on the shipment after receiving information that a shipment of firearms from Belgrade would arrive Friday.

Dino Tuason of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service said that it’s up to the importer to convince Customs authorities that the imported firearms were properly valued. – Rey Arquiza