P9.5-M cigarettes seized in Maguindanao del Norte

COTABATO CITY — Two rookie policemen earned praises from various sectors for their interception of P9.5 million worth of undocumented imported cigarettes made in Indonesia at an anti-smuggling checkpoint in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte before dawn on Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen C. De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, and the municipal police chief of Datu Odin Sinsuat, Lt. Col. Esmael A. Madin, separately told reporters that they are now in custody of the confiscated 266 boxes of cigarettes, which will be turned over to the Bureau of Customs.

Two policemen guarding the anti-smuggling checkpoint, Patrolman Ruel S. Cañete and Patrolman Michael M. Laoto, flagged down the Isuzu van-type truck carrying the contraband only for a routine inspection, but immediately detained its driver and his helper when they found out that the unit was loaded with cigarettes made in Indonesia.

“To these two rookie policemen, we are thankful,” said the entrepreneur-lawyer Ronald Hallid D. Torres, chairman of the Bangsamoro Business Council in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which is actively supporting the campaign of the Bangsamoro regional police against circulation of smuggled cigarettes in all of BARMM’s five provinces and three cities.

Mr. De Guzman and Mr. Madin had separately lauded both policemen via the radio stations in Cotabato City.

Personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police also immediately impounded the van-type truck, bearing license plates MAZ 7538, which was headed to different towns in Maguindanao del Norte and nearby provinces.

The driver of the truck and his helper were also detained for procedural interrogation. They both assured municipal police officials to identify the suppliers of the seized imported cigarettes for prosecution. — John Felix M. Unson