PAGADIAN CITY – Smugglers never learn their lessons that the long arm of the law is hell-bent in pursuing after them.
Just a day after the seizure of 1.2 million contraband cigarettes, smugglers again tried to deliver another P1.7 million worth of the same contraband when they were intercepted along the national highway in Barangay Baloyboan, this city.
Director, Brig. Gen. Ronaldo Genaro Ylagan, Police Regional Office 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) said a truck loaded with 105 master cases of undocumented cigarettes, consisting of 12 master cases of Nelson cigarettes and 93 master cases of Fort cigarettes valued at PHP1,785,000, was flagged down along the national highway, at around 7:30 a.m. om Wednesday.
The police official identified the smuggling suspects as Nilbert Lambajon, 28, and his assistant driver, Marlon Saavedra, 36, all residents of the city.
As usual, upon verification and interrogation, the suspects failed to show documents of legally doing business, and to prove the shipment is legal.
The government impounded the vehicle and confiscated the contraband cigarettes, as well as arrested the suspects.
Dir Ylagan has ordered all police units to strictly monitor smugglers in the city as they all tried to slip through the smuggled goods and cigarettes even with the series of confiscations and arrests made by the police.
Earlier on Tuesday (September 6), the suspects identified as David Batu-on Franco, driver and Michael Bryan Tagaytay, his assistant tried to hurdle a checkpoint to reportedly deliver the smuggled items to their customers.
But police operatives manning the checkpoint in Barangay Baloyboan flagged down the wing van truck loaded with 115 master cases of cigarettes consisting of 91 master cases of Fort and 24 master cases of New Berlin with a market value of PHP1,160,000.
The suspects, Franco and Tagaytay, report said, have failed to present pertinent documents that would prove the legality of the cigarettes. – PNA
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