LAWMEN have seized some P330,600 worth of smuggled cigarettes in separate anti-smuggling operations in Zamboanga City and Zamboanga Sibugay province, the police reported Friday, December 23, 2022.
Police Colonel Richard Verceles, operations chief of the Area Police Command-Western Mindanao, said that 16 sacks of assorted smuggled cigarettes worth P180,600 were seized around 8 p.m. Thursday, December 22, in Pasobolong village, this city.
Verceles said that the smuggled cigarettes were seized after the Zamboanga City Police Office’s Station 4 personnel received information that transaction is set to take place involving the sale of smuggled cigarettes along the road of Pasobolong village.
The smuggled cigarettes were abandoned by its owner upon sensing the presence of policemen in the place where the transaction is set to take place.
Meanwhile, Regional Mobile Force Battalion (RMFB)-Zamboanga Peninsula personnel turned over 10 master cases of assorted smuggled cigarettes around 7:50 p.m. Wednesday, December 21, at the police station of Talusan, Zamboanga Sibugay.
Verceles said the RMFB-Zamboanga Peninsula personnel were on coastal patrol when they found the smuggled cigarettes abandoned at the mangrove in Sitio Dao, Baganipay village, Talusan. (SunStar Zamboanga)