CONFISCATED. Personnel of the Bureau of Customs and Regional Maritime Unit-9 seize a shipment of smuggled cigarettes in Zamboanga City on Monday (Nov. 16, 2020). The contraband was found abandoned in a wooden boat near a local wharf. (Photo courtesy of RMU-9)
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- A team from the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Regional Maritime Unit-9 (RMU-9) have seized a shipment of smuggled cigarettes estimated worth millions of pesos in this southern port city, a BOC official said Tuesday.
Lawyer Segundo Sigmundfreud Barte Jr., BOC-Zamboanga District collector, said the abandoned contraband was seized aboard a wooden boat in Barangay Baliwasan here.
Barte said they managed to intercept the shipment after an informant reported to the MRU-9 that a boat loaded with smuggled cigarettes was set to arrive Monday from Tawi-Tawi.
However, Barte said they have yet to identify the owner of the smuggled cigarettes.
Barte said the boat yielded some 300 sacks of cigarettes of various brands, all taken to the BOC warehouse for proper inventory.
The confiscated cigarettes will be destroyed next month together with the other smuggled goods, he added. (PNA)
