THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) has destroyed 5,624 cases and 1,171 reams of seized smuggled cigarettes worth more than P325 million in a rented warehouse in Brgy. Tetuan, Zamboanga City.
The smuggled cigarettes were seized during separate maritime patrol operations and Customs checkpoints in the Zamboanga peninsula, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, from May to November this year.
Arthur Sevilla Jr.,BOC acting district collector of the Port of Zamboanga, led the condemnation activity, witnessed by partner agencies in the Bureau’s anti-smuggling campaign. Among those present were the representatives of the local government unit, law enforcement agencies, the Commission on Audit, and other concerned stakeholders.
Sevilla said the seizure and destruction of the smuggled cigarettes was in line with an order of Customs Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio to relentlessly combat the illicit tobacco trade in the country and forge a close partnership with the law enforcement agencies to further strengthen the Bureau’s anti-smuggling campaign.
The cigarettes were doused with water by elements from the Bureau of Fire Protection, crushed by a payloader, then disposed of in a sanitary landfill in Brgy. Salaan.