AUTHORITIES seized P10.85 million worth of smuggled cigarettes and arrested three suspects in Pagadian City on Saturday, police reported yesterday.
A report from the Zamboanga Peninsula regional police office named the arrested suspects as Rannie Navaja Solatorio, 27; Madlan Aquilan Salapudin, 32; and Cayetano Mulde Dabon, 55.
The three were nabbed during an anti-smuggling operation conducted in Barangay Tiguma.
The operation was led by operatives of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Regional Special Operations Group IX, and Pagadian City police station.
Police said the operation was coordinated with the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs.
“The suspects were caught in the act of unloading purchased smuggled cigarettes from a yellow refrigerated van,” the report said.
It said the suspects, during questioning, failed to present documents for the cigarettes they were unloading.
Seized from them were 310 master cases of Union brand cigarettes worth around P10.85 million and their refrigerated van.
