BOC-CDO destroys P75 million smuggled cigarettes

On Jun 15, 2021

Port of Cagayan de Oro customs officers give the thumb down on the smuggled cigarettes worth more than P75 million that they apprehended early this year before proceeding with their destruction last Monday, June 14, 2021. (photo credit: BOC-CDO).

THE Bureau of Customs-Port of Cagayan de Oro (CDO), destroyed P75 million worth of assorted smuggled cigarettes at a rendering facility in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, on Monday, June 14, 2021.

CDO district collector, John Simon, in a report to Comm. Rey Leonardo Guerrero, said the shipment, consigned to ‘Sixty Nine Enterprises,’ was apprehended at the Mindanao Container Terminal, Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, only last January 11, 2021, on board 3 container vans declared as “kitchenwares.”

However, alert customs officers instead discovered 135,700 reams of assorted cigarettes.

Leading the customs team to supervise the destruction inside the ‘Terra Cycliq Corp.’ facility in Bgy. Mantibugao, is CDO deputy collector for operations, Elizabeth Delas Llagas, MCT deputy collector for operations, Atty. Noe Espenilla and Oliver Valiente, chief, CDO field station, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS).

The cigarettes were destroyed through crushing with the use of road roller and backhoe. The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Manolo Fortich aided in the destruction by dispersing pressurized water into the cigarettes.