Cops seize P1.2-M worth imported cigarettes in Cotabato

COTABATO CITY — Policemen foiled an attempt before dawn on Monday, April 14, to deliver P1.2 million worth of cigarettes from Tacurong City to retailers in Cotabato province.

Captain April Rose Soria, acting chief of the Tulunan Municipal Police, and her superior, Col. Gilberto Tuzon, provincial police director of Cotabato, separately told reporters on Tuesday that the contraband was intercepted at a checkpoint in Barangay Sibsib, Tulunan, Cotabato, inside a van traveling from Tacurong City.

Soria said that a combined team from the Tulunan Municipal Police Station, Cotabato Provincial Police Office and the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit under the Police Regional Office-12 found 33 large boxes of various brands of Indonesian-made cigarettes, valued at P1.2 million, inside the van they flagged down.

Tuzon said the driver of the van is now under police custody, undergoing tactical interrogation. 

Tuzon said investigators are currently working to identify the supplier of the smuggled cigarettes, which the now-detained van driver was supposed to deliver to retailers in various towns across Cotabato.

Police Brig. Gen. Arnold Ardiente, director of PRO-12, expressed gratitude to the confidential informants who provided crucial information about the delivery of P1.2 million worth of cigarettes to Cotabato province, enabling their units to intercept it quickly.

According to Ardiente, the 33 boxes of confiscated cigarettes will be turned over to the Bureau of Customs for proper disposition.