P95 million worth of smuggled cigarettes seized in Sulu

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A Navy team seized P95 million worth of smuggled cigarettes in an offshore operation a few miles off Pangasinan Island in Sulu province on Monday, August 24.

Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, commander of the Western Mindanao Command, and the top official of the Naval Command Western Mindanao, Rear Admiral Constancio Arturo Reyes Jr., separately confirmed on Thursday the confiscation by a seaborne NCWM team of 611 large boxes of Indonesian-made cigarettes, costing P95 million, during an anti-smuggling operation close to a beachfront area in Pangasinan Island.

The contraband was supposed to be delivered by a small seacraft, the M/B Jiboy, to retailers in seaside towns in the Zamboanga peninsula in Region 9, in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat in Region 12 and in Lanao del Sur and Basilan, both in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The Navy personnel who carried out the anti-smuggling operation also impounded the M/B Jiboy, now berthed at the seaside base of the NCWM, all of its crewmen detained, to be prosecuted for violation of state anti-smuggling laws.

The smuggled cigarettes had been turned over to officials of the Bureau of Customs for proper disposition.

Reyes and Cagara had separately expressed gratitude to local executives in Sulu and to officials of legitimate blocs of merchants in BARMM for providing tips about the supposed shipment of the smuggled cigarettes to Regions 9 and 12 and to the Bangsamoro region, enabling Navy personnel to launch the operation that foiled the smuggling attempt.