Illegal cigarettes trader entrapped in Kidapawan City

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Plainclothes policemen seized P510,000 worth of imported cigarettes from a dealer entrapped in Barangay Lanao in Kidapawan City late Saturday, March 8.

The businessman Harry Estrada Castillano was immediately arrested by combined personnel of the Regional Intelligence Division of the Police Regional Office-12 and the Kidapawan City Police Office after selling to them his illegal merchandise during a tradeoff on Saturday night in Purok 6 in Barangay Lanao.

Col. Gilberto Tuzon, Cotabato provincial police director, said on Sunday, March 9, that the suspect is now detained, awaiting prosecution.

The team that staged the entrapment operation had seized from him 13 boxes of cigarettes from Indonesia, piled in his house in Barangay Lanao.

The entrapment operation that led to the arrest of Castillano and the confiscation from him of P510,000 worth of imported cigarettes was laid with the help of barangay officials, according to local executives in Kidapawan City.