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From supercar to scrap: BOC destroys 10 smuggled luxury vehicles

Published Feb 10, 2021 12:51 pm

Ten smuggled luxury vehicles manufactured by Bentley, Mercedes Benz, and Porsche were reduced to scrap as part of the Bureau of Customs’ (BoC) 119th anniversary celebration, sending a stern warning to smugglers that the agency means business.

(PHOTO VIA BOC / MANILA BULLETIN)

The eye-catching supercars--seized on separate occasions since 2015--were destroyed using an excavator, which repeatedly rammed the parked vehicles on Tuesday, February 9 at the Customs headquarters in Manila.

A used Ford F-150 Super SVT Can Raptor Pick Up, a brand new 2015 Toyota Landcruiser, and a used 2007 Bentley Continental GT, which were seized at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) in August 2015, November 2017, and January 2019, respectively, were also among the crushed vehicles.

(PHOTO VIA BOC / MANILA BULLETIN)

Five units of used luxury vehicles such as Land Rover 2012, Range Rover Evoque 2019, Porsche 911, Mercedes Benz, and Alfa Romeo--intercepted at the Port of Cebu in 2019--were also disposed of.

Other condemned vehicles include a brand new Hyundai Starex and one used Renault Black Van seized at the Port of Manila in February 2020.

“The destruction of the vehicles which arrived from the US, Belgium, Japan, and Korea is a warning to all unscrupulous importers to stop the illegal importation of vehicles,” Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero said.

The destruction of the smuggled supercars was among the highlights of the bureau’s anniversary celebration.

It was back in 2016 when President Duterte first ordered the destruction of smuggled luxury vehicles to shut the doors on smugglers in getting their importation back through biddings. It has become a BoC tradition ever since. 

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