• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The intensified anti-smuggling drive of the Philippine National Police has yielded positive results, following the successful interception of smuggled cigarettes with an estimated value of P1.6 million on Wednesday at Barangay Pahanocoy in Bacolod City.
The operation carried out by personnel of the Bacolod City Police Office Station 8, with the assistance of PNP Explosives Ordnance Unit, resulted in the arrest of alias “Jun,” 56 years old, of Barangay 3, Victorias City, Negros Occidental.
Police investigations showed that the Police Station 8 personnel noted 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 it.
While policemen approached the vehicle, the individuals abruptly dispersed and boarded a red Toyota Hi-Lux. However, a person who was actively loading the boxes at the time remained at the scene, yielded to authorities, and 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.*
