Smuggled assault rifles intercepted at Manila port

Elements of the Intelligence and Enforcement Group (IEG) yesterday foiled an attempt to smuggle parts of high-powered rifles through the Manila International Container Port (MICP).

According to Enforcement and Security Service (ESS) director Nestorio Gualberto, the intercepted shipment consist of barrels of M-16 and M-14 rifles which were hidden inside balikbayan boxes loaded into a 40-foot container van. Gualberto refused to give further information about the shipment.

He, however, said that the van arrived at the MICP last week and that the ESS is still conducting an inventory of the shipment, which he describes as the biggest haul of gun parts ever seized by the ESS.

Customs IEG chief, Deputy Commissioner Celso Templo said they are still verifying the identities of the consignees of the shipment.

"The process of identifying the persons involved in this smuggling attempt would be difficult," said Templo.

Meanwhile, Gualberto said the premature leak of the information regarding the shipment to reporters, has made it more difficult to run after the smugglers.

"Now that the illegal shipment had been leaked to media, all our efforts to catch the culprits had become naught.

There could be a conspiracy to protect the persons involved in this firearms smuggling," he said.

According to Gualberto, they have received information about the arrival of the contraband inside the container van several days after its arrival at the MICP.

However, they decided to just wait for the consignees to claim the shipment before making the bust.

Gualberto also raised the suspicion that smuggling of gun parts and ammunition have been going on for sometime at the country’s piers using consolidated shipments involving the shipment of balikbayan boxes from the US, Korea and Hong Kong.

As this developed, Gualberto urged the Bureau of Customs to conduct a review of its security measures to prevent the smuggling of guns and gun parts using balikbayan boxes.