P526-M cigarettes seized in Mindanao Navy operations

COTABATO CITY — Navy teams seized a total of P526.2 million worth of imported cigarettes in two separate seaborne operations last week in the territorial seas of the Bangsamoro region.

Officials of the Western Mindanao Naval Command (WMNC), the military’s Western Mindanao Command (WestMinCom) and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region separately told reporters on Monday that the two boats were transporting the contraband to seaside areas in the Zamboanga Peninsula, in Lebak and Kalamansig towns in Region 12 and in Maguindanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur. The boats are now berthed at a Navy station in Zamboanga City.

Radio reports on Monday stated that Navy personnel in a patrol craft first intercepted on Wednesday the M/B Zhyzhy, loaded with 2,519 boxes of cigarettes from Indonesia, a few miles off Basilan province.

Officials of the WMNC and the WestMinCom, among them its commander, Army Lt. Gen. Donald M. Gumiran, told reporters that the 14 crewmen of the M/B Zhyzhy were bringing the imported cigarettes, costing P317.3 million, to illegal traders at coastal villages in Basilan and in Zamboanga City.

Authorities also said another Navy team promptly confiscated in an anti-smuggling operation at the municipal waters of Hadji Mohammad Ajul in Basilan last Thursday 1,400 boxes of Indonesian-made cigarettes piled at the hull of the seacraft JTK Express, then sailing for Pagadian City in Region 9.

Customs agents in Region 9 and officials of the WMNC placed at no less than P208.9 million the value of the imported cigarettes that the six crewmen and captain of the JTK Express were to transport then to buyers in Pagadian City.

The six crewmen and captain of the JTK Express had told WMNC and police officials that a smuggler in Tawi-Tawi contracted them to transport the illegal merchandise from the province to traders in Pagadian City. — John Felix M. Unson