ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Police held a minor and his companion after P1.8-million worth of smuggled cigarettes were found from them in waters off Sta. Cruz Island in Zamboanga City on Monday, Oct. 3.
Combined police units and Bureau of Customs personnel were conducting anti-smuggling operations when they spotted a jungkong (small wooden motorized boat commonly used as a smuggling vessel in the maritime borders of the Philippines, Sabah, Malaysia and Eastern Indonesia) with markings ‘Sy Adzrina Express’ off Sta. Cruz Island.
Upon inspection, troops saw that the boat was manned by a 16-year-old boy and his companion, identified as Dennis Patrimonio, 49.
The two boat occupants, who were reportedly on their way to Cotabato City from Sulu Province, failed to present papers showing proof that the cigarettes worth P1.897-million they were transporting were legal.
The two men were held and the cigarettes were turned over to the Bureau of Customs for disposition.