POLICE intercepted P11.127-million smuggled cigarettes in Barangay Talaban, Himamayaln City, Negros Occidental on Saturday, Oct. 4. (Himamaylan City Police Station)
BACOLOD CITY – A 42-year-old truck driver and his helper were arrested and smuggled cigarettes worth P11.1 million were seized in Barangay Talaban, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental on Saturday, Oct. 4.
The suspects were residents of Zamboanga City and Jolo, Sulu.
Police sighted two individuals in possession of numerous boxes of suspected smuggled cigarettes in the coastal barangay before noon.
Authorities approached and conducted an inspection and the suspects failed to present any pertinent documents related to the payment of lawful duties and taxes from the Bureau of Customs.
Recovered from the suspects were 170 boxes or 8,500 reams of PURE cigarettes, 15 boxes or 750 reams of FORT cigarettes, and five boxes or 250 reams of BERLIN cigarettes.
They were arrested for violating Section 1401 of Republic Act (RA) 10863 (Unlawful Importation) in relation to Section 6 of RA 10643 (Graphic Health Warnings on Tobacco Products Act of 2014).
Last month, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)-NIR apprehended a 41-year-old Chinese national and confiscated P7.8 million in smuggled cigarettes here.