MANILA – Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. on Sunday ordered an intensified crackdown on strategic transit and storage hubs used for illegal tobacco trade.
In a statement, Nartatez said smuggling activities recur in several areas, particularly in parts of Central Luzon and in Mindanao.
“We have to counter every aggressive move by these cigarette smugglers because this illegal activity involves billions of pesos of supposed taxes to the government,” he said.
“We have to sustain our efforts to locate the smuggled items, dismantle all their networks and identify and hold responsible all those involved.”
The directive came after a series of recent operations that led to the seizure of more than PHP100 million worth of smuggled cigarettes in separate operations in Bulacan and Davao del Sur.
Nartatez said the haul highlights the scale of the illegal trade and the role of organized financiers behind it.
“No amount of money, influence, or connections can protect smugglers and their financiers. We will go after not only the runners and warehouse operators, but more importantly, the financiers and masterminds behind these illegal activities,” he said.
Earlier, the PNP inspected a raided illegal cigarette factory in Mexico, Pampanga, where PHP400 million worth of tobacco products were recovered.
Since December last year, around PHP10 billion worth of undocumented cigarettes, paraphernalia, and machinery have been seized in various warehouses and illegal manufacturing plants in Malabon and the province of Batangas and Pampanga. (PNA)