ZAMBOANGA CITY – Police and Customs officers intercepted two motorboats loaded with some P8.9 million worth of smuggled cigarettes off a coastal village in Zamboanga City, officials said Saturday.
Officials said nine boatmen, mostly from the southern province of Sulu, were also arrested on smuggling charges after failing to present legal documents for hundreds of boxes of assorted cigarette brands.
The two boats had markings “Ayyeen”
and “Zafreen Oasla” and were intercepted at dawn Friday by patrolling members
of the Zamboanga City Mobile Force Company and the Bureau of Customs, said Maj.
Shellamie Chang, a regional police spokesperson.
Police identified the boatmen
as Alsid Dalisan, 36; Faizal Sangkula, 39; Abduridjan Anni, 40; Gaspar Susulan,
33; Almijir Salapuddin, 35; Bennajir Mikael, 33; Nilson Hapas, 47; Almujeb
Abdulgari, 28, all natives of Sulu; and Abdulhamik Mikael, 34; of Zamboanga
City.
The identities of the
smugglers or their financiers were not made public, but the contraband was
turned over to the Bureau of Customs.
On Wednesday, police
also confiscated some P6.7 million worth of smuggled cigarettes and arrested a 46-year
old truck driver Edgar Estrada following a dramatic chase in the village of San
Roque here.
Police had to use a helicopter which
guided ground forces in pursuing the getaway truck full of boxes of New Orleans
cigarettes as it snaked through the village while trying to evade security
forces. The truck was eventually cornered, but two of the driver’s helpers evaded.
The seized cigarettes were turned
over to the Customs office. Cigarette smuggling is rampant in Zamboanga and the
contraband is widely available in the market because of its cheap prices. Aside
from cigarettes, petroleum products from neighboring Malaysia are also being
smuggled by boats through the southern back door. (Mindanao Examiner)
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