P12.4 million smuggled cigarettes seized in Zamboanga warehouse

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Firefighters and police seized smuggled cigarettes worth P12.4 million, which they discovered a day after a fire hit a warehouse in a village east of this city on Thursday.

Personnel of the Bureau of Fire and Protection and Police Station 5 initially found out that several master cases of cigarettes were among those destroyed when a fire hit the warehouse in Barangay Divisoria, Zamboanga City police chief Col. Rexmel Reyes said.

He said a follow-up investigation coordinated with the Bureau of Customs and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency led to the discovery of  354 master cases and 62 reams of assorted brands of cigarettes.