Cops seize P1.2-M imported cigarettes in Cotabato

COTABATO CITY — Policemen on Monday foiled an attempt to deliver P1.2 million worth of cigarettes from Tacurong City to retailers in Cotabato province.

Acting Tulunan municipal police chief April Rose R. Soria and his superior, Cotabato’s provincial police director, Gilberto B. Tuzon, separately told reporters on Tuesday that the contraband was intercepted at a checkpoint in Barangay Sibsib in Tulunan town in Cotabato, piled inside a van from nearby Tacurong City.

Ms. Soria said combined personnel of the Tulunan Municipal Police Station, the Cotabato Provincial Police Office and the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit under the Police Regional Office-12 found 33 large boxes of different brands of cigarettes made in Indonesia inside a van.

Mr. Tuzon said the driver of the van is now in police custody, undergoing tactical interrogation.

Investigators are also now trying to identify the supplier of the smuggled cigarettes that were being transported to retailers in different towns in Cotabato.

The confiscated 33 boxes of cigarettes will be turned over to the Bureau of Customs for its proper disposition. — John Felix M. Unson