Navy team seizes P44-M imported cigarettes in Davao region operations

COTABATO CITY — A Navy team intercepted P44 million worth of imported cigarettes from Jolo, Sulu in a seaborne operation over the weekend.

Radio reports on Monday stated that personnel of a unit under the Naval Forces Eastern Mindanao (NFEM) aboard a patrol boat intercepted the M/B Qaisar, then carrying the contraband, some three nautical miles off Pantukan town in Davao de Oro.

The NFEM had mentioned in a report that the 13 detained crewmen of the M/B Qaisar had confirmed that the contraband they were to unload in beachfront areas in Davao de Oro province came all the way from Jolo town in Sulu province in Zamboanga Peninsula, a known transshipment point for cigarettes brought in from Indonesia.

The 1,118 large boxes containing cigarettes, of different Indonesian brands, that Navy personnel have seized from them were immediately transported to the seaside headquarters of the NFEM in Panacan in Davao City.

Officials of the NFEM said the M/B Qaisar had also been impounded.

The captain and all crewmen of M/B Qaisar have reportedly assured to identify the smugglers who contracted them. — John Felix M. Unson