ALL police units have been ordered to strengthen the watch against entry of smuggled cigarettes in their respective area of operations.
Police Brigadier General Ronaldo Genaro Ylagan, Police Regional Office-Zamboanga Peninsula director, issued the order as another shipment of smuggled cigarettes worth P1.78 million was intercepted by policemen in the province of Zamboanga del Sur.
Ylagan said the shipment was intercepted around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, September 8, 2021, along the national highway in Baloyboan village, Pagadian City, the capital of Zamboanga del Sur.
Ylagan said the policemen were conducting checkpoint operations when they intercepted a cargo truck loaded with 105 master cases of undocumented cigarettes consisting of 12 master cases of Nelson and 93 master cases of Fort with an estimated P1,785,000.
He said the driver of the cargo truck identified as Nilbert Lambajon, 28, and his truckman, Marlon Saavedra, 36, failed to present documents to prove that the shipment of the cigarettes was legal.
He said the cargo truck and the confiscated smuggled cigarettes were impounded, while the driver and his truckman were detained at the Pagadian City Police Station.
The shipment of smuggled cigarettes was the second to be confiscated this week in Baloyboan village, Pagadian City.
The first was on Tuesday, September 7, wherein some P1.2 million worth of smuggled cigarettes were intercepted by policemen while on checkpoint operations. (SunStar Zamboanga)