P18.34 million cigarettes seized in Davao
THE Port of Davao of the Bureau of Customs on Tuesday, January 18, 2022, intercepted a shipment of smuggled cigarettes worth P18.34 million.
Acting on the information provided by the office of Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence (DCI) Ranier Ramiro, the local office of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS), requested Davao District Collector Atty. Dino Austria, for the issuance of an alert order that Austria immediately granted last January 12, 2022, against the shipment consigned to ‘Essafrank Consumer Goods Trading.’
The initial report reaching Ramiro further said that actual physical examination of the shipment last January 18, 2022, resulted to the discovery of 1,000 master cases of ‘Two Moon’ cigarettes and 20 master cases of ‘Fort Menthol’ cigarettes.
The BOC has earned high praises from the tobacco industry for its relentless drive against cigarette smuggling and the domestic production of illicit cigarettes, with the president of Philip Morris – Fortune Tobacco Corporation (PMFTC), Dennis Gorkun, describing the effort as “fabulous work.”
In 2021, BOC apprehensions of smuggled and illicit cigarettes under the Intelligence Group reached P1.76 billion, the third highest in terms of value of all seized smuggled goods.
