Authorities seized by chance on Thursday a shipment of PHP1.1 million worth of smuggled cigarettes and arrested two suspects while on a security patrol in this southern port city, according to a top police official in the region.
Colonel Richard Verceles, operations chief of the Area Police Command-Western Mindanao, said the shipment of smuggled cigarettes was seized by a team of policemen on patrol around 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Araneta Drive, Barangay Sinunuc here.
While conducting a patrol in the area, Verceles said policemen extended help to two persons whose vehicle was seen parked at the side of the road with a flat tire .
“The cops offered them an automotive jack to change the tire, which the duo readily accepted,” Verceles said.
The two were later identified as Benhar Tunggal, 30, the driver, and his assistant, Aldimar Idjan, 30, both of Sinunuc village here.
The cops, however, discovered that the vehicle driven by Tunggal was loaded with 32 master cases of Casa Blanca Red cigarettes when Idjan opened the minivan to get the spare tire.
The police officers seized the cigarettes with a market value of PHP1.1 million since both Tunggal and Idjan failed to present documents of the cargo.
Verceles said Tunggal and Idjan, as well as the vehicle and the confiscated cigarettes were taken to the Zamboanga City Police Office’s Station 8 and later turned over to the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
The K9 unit of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency–Zamboanga Peninsula inspected the contraband before its turnover to the BOC.
The shipment was confiscated two days after joint police, military, and BOC personnel arrested three persons and seized more than PHP3 million worth of smuggled cigarettes in nearby Zamboanga Sibugay province.
Source: Philippines News Agency