200 boxes of fake cigarettes seized in Iligan City checkpoint

Authorities intercepted a truck at 1:00 o’clock dawn on Monday, July 15, loaded with two hundred boxes of fake cigarettes with estimated market value of Php4,000,000, in a checkpoint at the national highway in Barangay Suarez, Iligan City. (Photo by: Iligan City Police Station 2)

ILIGAN CITY –– Authorities seized 200 boxes of fake cigarettes loaded in an Isuzu Forward truck in a checkpoint along the national highway of Barangay Suarez here at 1 am on Monday, July 15.

Police Captain Taha Tambog, chief of Iligan City Police Station 2, said the city government’s Task Force Kalikasan checked the forward truck thinking it was carrying logs but found the cigarettes estimated to be worth P4 million in the market.

Tambog said the boxes were covered with laminated sacks.

“Task Force Kalikasan endorsed (the seized cargo) to our office and we found out that it has no pertinent documents to prove the legality of the cigarettes,” Tambog said in a phone interview.

Authorities intercepted a truck at 1:00 o’clock dawn on Monday, July 15, loaded with two hundred boxes of fake cigarettes with estimated market value of Php4,000,000, in a checkpoint at the national highway in Barangay Suarez, Iligan City. (Photo by: Iligan City Police Station 2)

Police said the truck driver, Mark Eugene Fernandez Dolorican, 24, and his helper, Ronni Concepcion Baquiran, 29, came from Zamboanga City and were on their way to Davao City.

Police were preparing a case against Dolorican, a resident of La Victoria, Aurora town in Zamboanga del Sur, and Baquiran, a resident of Butilog, Poblacion Kagawasan, Dimataling town in Zamboanga del Sur for violation of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines. /lzb