COTABATO CITY — Police authorities in Maguindanao seized about PHP1-million worth of smuggled cigarettes concealed in boxes and sacks of dried fish while being transported to the province from Pagadian City on Friday.
Three persons were also arrested for failure to present documents legalizing possession and transport of highly taxable products, said Senior Insp. Ricardo Solomon Jr., commander of the police’s 14th Regional Mobile Force Company in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
He identified the arrested suspects as Abdulkadir Laguiab, Salman Tautin, and Adam Guiamaludin, all residents of Maguindanao.
Acting on a tip from concerned citizens, policemen manning a checkpoint along the highway in Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao flagged down a cargo truck loaded with dried fish at past 10 a.m. About 50 cases of smuggled Fortune and Jackpot cigarettes were seized.
Police implementing plain-view inspection would not notice the smuggled cigarettes since these were placed under piles of huge dried fish boxes and sacks.
Solomon said the truck occupants were the first to open the boxes and they later admitted carrying smuggled cigarette cargoes.
He said they made a thorough inspection “because we were earlier tipped about the matter.”
“The transport of dried fish was just a front,” Solomon told reporters here. (Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
