THE officials and customs brokers of two trading companies apprehended by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) while trying to smuggle in cigarettes and used clothing (“ukay-ukay”) are now facing criminal charges before the Department of Justice, bringing the total number of cases filed thus far this year by the bureau against suspected smugglers to 49 cases.
In a statement, the bureau’s ‘Action Team Against Smugglers’ (BATAS) identified the suspects as ‘Green Nature Alliance Venture Corp.’ and, ‘Humility Trading,’ which were apprehended by alert BOC operatives last February 10, 2021 and last October 13, 2020, respectively.
Green Nature tried to smuggle in 540 boxes of ‘Marvel’ cigarettes and 500 boxes of ‘Mighty’ cigarettes at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) worth more than P56 million.
Humility Trading, meanwhile, tried to sneak-in 79 bales of used bed sheets and 229 bales of used clothing at the Port of Cagayan de Oro worth more than P2 million.
BOC records also show that only last June 9, 2021, Green Nature was also apprehended at the MICP for trying to smuggle in another shipment of cigarettes worth more than P38 million.
Cigarette smugglers are now offering P3 million to any customs broker or importer for every container-load of cigarettes they can successfully release from any port of entry.
Atty. Vener Baquiran, deputy commissioner for revenue collection and monitoring (RCMG), who supervises BATAS, lauded the group’s continuous effort in filing cases against smugglers.
The filing of the two cases, he added, further increased the bureau’s filed cases against suspected smugglers at 49 cases since the start of the year.
These cases, added BOC spokesman, Atty. Vincent Maronilla, are aside from the 127 smuggling cases that BATAS filed last year with many of them already being heard by various courts, especially in Metro Manila.
Maronilla also bared to Pinoy Exposé that traders and importers along with their customs brokers are “tempted” to engage into smuggling activities, especially of cigarettes, because of the huge amount at stake.
Maronilla said that their information showed that cigarette smugglers are now offering P3 million to any customs broker or importer for every container-load of cigarettes they can successfully release from any port of entry.
He further bared that although a container-load of cigarettes can cost smugglers P6 million to P7 million as “expense,” the expected profit margin is “more than 100 percent” or upward to P156 million once these illicit cigarettes entered the local market.
“Malaki talaga ang kinikita kaya malakas ang tukso na mag-smuggle na lang. Pero nagbabantay naman palagi ang BOC at kapag nahuli sila, kaso ang aabutin nila,” Maronilla said.
Aside from criminal cases before the DOJ, Maronilla said the BOC accreditation of importers and brokers that allowed them to transact with the bureau are “automatically revoked” once they are caught engaged in smuggling activities.