Factories of fake cigarettes closed in Pangasinan, Pampanga

A policeman inspects packs of fake cigarettes seized from a factory in Villasis town in Pangasinan province. —RAY ZAMBRANO

Two factories that police and customs officials said were counterfeiting popular cigarette brands were shut down on Thursday and Friday after raids in Pangasinan and Pampanga provinces.

On Friday, a team led by Bureau of Customs (BOC) officials, swooped down on a suspected factory inside a sprawling mango orchard in Barangay Unzad in Villasis, Pangasinan, and arrested 10 Chinese nationals believed to be behind the clandestine operation.

The team seized nine machines used for cigarette making and hundreds of sacks of imported tobacco leaves and packing materials.

Hundreds of boxes of fake cigarettes bearing popular brands such as Marlboro, Winston and Mighty, and fake stamps of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) were also found in the buildings in the orchard.

On Thursday, police and the Pampanga provincial government padlocked an animal feed mill in Barangay San Isidro in Lubao town that was believed manufacturing fake cigarettes.

The mill, owned by Mark Bryan Chan, was manufacturing cigarettes carrying the Marlboro, Camel, Fortune, Mighty and Marvel brands, said Chief Supt. Aaron Aquino, Central Luzon police director.

Lito Manalansan, village chief of San Isidro, said Chan bought the property in February and had applied for a permit to operate a feed mill in September.

“But we saw just one corn crusher in the factory late last month,” Manalansan said.

Senior Supt. Joel Consulta, Pampanga police director, said the factory may have been operating for less than a month.

Chan and his workers were not at the site during the police search. Representatives from cigarette companies were called to the site to inspect and confirm the counterfeit cigarettes, which were in boxes bearing importation markings. BIR tax seals were also found in several boxes.

The names of the 10 Chinese held in the Pangasinan raid were not immediately available. The Chinese also refused to talk to reporters.

“There are nine machines so their production is beyond imagination,” said Antero Prado Jr., technical assistant of the BOC. He said the factory can produce 1,000 cases of cigarettes a day. A case contains 50 reams of cigarette sticks. Each ream has 10 packs.

“If each pack has an excise tax of P25, the government is losing about P12.5 million a day or almost P5 billion a year,” said a member of the raiding team.

Prado said the facility may have been operating in the last 10 years.

“The raid was a continuation of operations conducted in Cagayan de Oro and Davao cities in Mindanao, where we seized warehouses containing counterfeit tobacco products,” he said.—GABRIEL CARDINOZA AND TONETTE OREJAS