BARMM cops seize P1.9-M worth of smuggled cigarettes

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December 18, 2025 | 5:34pm

COTABATO CITY — Police intercepted two minivans loaded with P1.9 million worth of cigarettes from Indonesia during an anti-smuggling operation in Semba, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, before dawn on Thursday, December 18.

Personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station, led by their chief Lt. Col. Esmael Madin, immediately seized the contraband and detained the four men aboard the two vehicles, which were en route to their contacts in nearby barangays in the municipality.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office–Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters at noon on Thursday that Madin and his men promptly blocked a stretch of highway in Semba, preventing the two vehicles from passing through the center of Datu Odin Sinsuat after receiving tips from informants about the planned delivery of smuggled cigarettes to buyers in the area.

Local officials and members of the multisectoral Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Peace and Order Council said the four couriers of the confiscated imported cigarettes, Sawi Kunsag, Hamidin Upam, Suad Tato, and Anwarudin Singh, were working for a large-scale smuggler operating in several towns in Maguindanao del Norte and in Cotabato City, the capital of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Madin said the anti-smuggling operation that resulted in the seizure of P1.9 million worth of cigarettes was carried out with the assistance of Datu Odin Sinsuat Mayor Abdulmain Abas and Vice Mayor Bobsteel Sinsuat.

Madin and De Guzman separately said the smuggled cigarettes will be turned over to the Bureau of Customs for proper disposition.