Mighty cigarette packs seized in Visayas

Neil Estrella (left) of the Bureau of customs CIIS director watches as a BIR employee uses a taggant reader to a pack of alledge smuggled Mighty cigarettes to confirm that the stamps were fack after it was sized in two. 20 footer container vans in pier 4.(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

TACLOBAN CITY—Mighty cigarettes with fake tax stamps have reached the ports of Cebu and Tacloban cities.

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) seized 400 cartons of cigarettes with alleged fake stamps in Tacloban and two 40-foot container vans in Cebu.

Edgar Quejada, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) legal officer in Eastern Visayas, said the owner of the shipment in Tacloban deprived the government of about P6 million in excise tax.

Using a gadget, Quejada inspected the cigarette pack which produced a red light, indicating the stamps were fake. A green light would mean these were real.

The 400 cartons were inside a container van loaded from the MV Lady Alina, which arrived at the Tacloban port about 9 p.m. on Monday, said BOC special agent Francisco Colmenares.

“We received information from our intelligence office division in Cebu, Verne Enciso, that about 400 boxes of cigarettes with fake stamps are loaded on the ship, which came from Manila,” Colmenares said.

On Tuesday, the van was opened for inspection in the presence of Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon and Quejada.

“We will first establish the owner of the items and from there, we will see what possible actions the BIR will take. But initially, we can charge the owner with using fake stamps, which is a criminal offense,” Quejada said.

Using taggant reader, the stamps were found to be fake.

Colmenares said the seized items were supposed to be delivered to a warehouse by Mighty, the manufacturer of the seized cigarettes, in the city’s San Jose District.

“But for now, we will take custody for the items,” he said.

In Cebu City, two 40-foot container vans were seized at Pier 4 after these were unloaded from MV Don Alberto Sr. of Gothong Shipping Lines from Manila via Tacloban.

Neil Estrella, director of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, opened the vans on Tuesday. He said the cigarettes could be part of a shipment, a portion of which was seized in an operation in Pampanga.

The cigarettes not confiscated in Pampanga were sent to different areas and warehouses in the country, he added.