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CAMP SK PENDATUN, BARMM, Philippines – Police in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) seized more than P110,000 worth of smuggled cigarettes in an abandoned vessel docked at the coast of Picong, Lanao del Sur at 9 a.m. on Monday, June 24, .
Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn, BARMM police regional director, said the police were tipped about an abandoned vessel loaded with boxes of suspected contraband in Barangay Liangan, prompting them to go to the area to respond. There, they recovered the smuggled items and brought them to the Picong municipal police station.
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The incident came days after authorities confiscated P10.6 million worth of smuggled cigarettes and arrested a suspected smuggler in Indanan, Sulu on Friday, June 21.
Police and Customs personnel were monitoring a warehouse in the Indanan town of Sulu, where boxes of cigarettes were being hauled but as they approached, several persons fled, leaving a certain “Jim” caught off guard holding boxes of smuggled cigarettes.
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Tanggawohn said police recovered 297 boxes with 14,850 reams of cigarettes which they turned over to the Bureau of Customs.
BARMM police have intensified anti-smuggling operations after Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Rommel Marbil directed Mindanao police to end the smuggling of cigarettes that deprived the government of more than P25 billion in taxes each year. —Edwin O. Fernandez