P2.6-M worth of imported cigarettes seized in Maguindanao del Norte

COTABATO CITY — Law enforcement agents on Monday foiled an attempt by smugglers to deliver P2.6 million worth of cigarettes from Indonesia to contacts in Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte. 

Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Wednesday that personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station, led by Lt. Col. Samuel Roy Subsuban, and agents of the National Bureau of Investigation intercepted the van-type truck carrying 100 boxes of Indonesian-made cigarettes in Barangay Awang. These boxes were supposed to be delivered to buyers in the area and in other nearby towns.

The joint police-NBI anti-smuggling operation that resulted in the confiscation of the imported cigarettes was premised on reports by confidential tipsters about a plan by smugglers to deliver the illegal merchandise from the seaside Barangay Kinudalan in Lebak, Sultan Kudarat to retailers in Maguindanao del Norte.

Officials of the Datu Odin Sinsuat MPS and the NBI’s office in Cotabato City shall turn over the seized smuggled cigarettes to the Bureau of Customs for its disposition, according to Tanggawohn.

Operatives of the Datu Odin MPS had confiscated more than P30 million worth of imported cigarettes in one anti-smuggling operation after another in the past 15 months.