• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The intensified anti-smuggling drive of the Philippine National Police in Bacolod City resulted in the interception of smuggled cigarettes worth an estimated P1.6 million on Wednesday, April 22, at Barangay Pahanocoy in Bacolod City.
The operation, carried out by personnel of the Bacolod City Police Office Station 8 with the assistance of the PNP Explosives Ordnance Unit, also led to the arrest of alias “Jun,” 56, of Barangay 3, Victorias City, Negros Occidental.
Police investigations showed that personnel of Police Station 8 noticed a group of individuals unloading suspicious boxes from a passenger bus and transferring them into a white Toyota Hi-Ace van, prompting them to verify the activity.
When the policemen approached the vehicle, the individuals abruptly dispersed and boarded a red Toyota Hi-Lux. One of their companions, however, was left behind and surrendered to the authorities. He turned over the boxes and the Toyota Hi-Ace van to the responding personnel.
Thirty-three boxes of New Mega Menthol cigarettes, containing 825 reams of illicit tobacco products without the required tax stamps, were recovered by the police.
On April 21, policemen arrested nine Chinese nationals and four other suspects following the discovery of an alleged cigarette manufacturing warehouse in Calumangan, Bago City, Negros Occidental.
On the same day, the police also discovered another warehouse allegedly used as a storage facility for illicit cigarette production in Barangay Alijis, Bacolod City.
The joint operation of intelligence operatives from the Police Regional Office–Negros Island Region, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Philippine Coast Guard, local police, and the National Tobacco Administration led to the discovery of equipment believed to be used in the production of illegal cigarettes.
The inspection conducted by authorities yielded three loader machines, three packaging machines, and various paraphernalia used for the unauthorized production of tobacco products.
The joint operation, led by the Bacolod City government, Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), and other law enforcement units, resulted in the discovery of thousands of boxes of packaging materials and other paraphernalia estimated to be worth millions of pesos. | GB
