Gen. Jose Melencio C. Nartatez, Jr., chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), ordered all police units across the country to assist in the crackdown on strategic transit and storage hubs used for illegal tobacco trade.

Nartatez said intelligence reports disclosed a recurring smuggling activities in strategic transit and storage areas, particularly in parts of Central Luzon and some areas in Mindanao.

“We have to counter every aggressive move by these cigarette smugglers because this illegal activity involves billions of pesos of supposed taxes to the government. We have to sustain our efforts to locate the smuggled items, dismantle all their networks and identify and hold responsible all those involved,” said Nartatez.

The directive came after a series of recent operations that led to the seizure of more than P100 million worth of smuggled cigarettes in separate operations in Bulacan and Davao del Sur.

On Friday, Feb. 6, joint operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) confiscated around P80 million worth of illegal cigarettes in an entrapment operation in Marilao, Bulacan, resulting in the arrest of two foreign nationals suspected of involvement in large-scale illicit distribution.

This was followed by the seizure of around P22 million worth of suspected smuggled cigarettes in Barangay Dawis, Digos City, Davao del Sur on the same day.

Nartatez said the haul highlights the scale of the illegal trade and the role of organized financiers behind it, “No amount of money, influence, or connections can protect smugglers and their financiers. We will go after not only the runners and warehouse operators, but more importantly, the financiers and masterminds behind these illegal activities.”

Earlier, police inspected a raided illegal cigarette factory in Mexico, Pampanga where P400 million worth of tobacco products were recovered.

Since December last year, around P10 billion worth of undocumented cigarettes, paraphernalia, and machinery have been seized in various warehouses and illegal manufacturing plants in Batangas, Malabon, and Pampanga.