Cops seize P8.8 million worth of smuggled cigarettes in Sultan Kudarat

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January 22, 2026 | 7:07pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Policemen seized P8.8 million worth of cigarettes from Indonesia in anti-smuggling operations in the seaside Barangay Tibpuan in Lebak, Sultan Kudarat before dawn Thursday, January 22.

Brig. Gen. Arnold Ardiente, director of the Police Regional Office 12, told reporters at noon Thursday that the smuggled cigarettes were found in two adjoining shelters in Barangay Tibpuan, which policemen from different PRO 12 units subjected to separate search operations based on warrants from a court.

The raids that led to the confiscation of the P8.8 million worth of cigarettes with different Indonesian brands were planned with the help of barangay officials and traditional Moro community leaders who provided police units in Lebak vital information about the stockpiling by four smugglers of imported cigarettes in their adjoining houses in Barangay Tibpuan.

The keepers of the smuggled cigarettes were nowhere in the areas that combined policemen from different units of PRO-12 and the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Police Office and personnel of the Lebak Municipal Police Station, subjected to anti-smuggling operations assisted by local executives.

Ardiente said the seized smuggled cigarettes shall be turned over to the Bureau of Customs for its disposition.

He told reporters that he and his subordinate officers involved in the operation are grateful to the barangay officials and Moro community leaders who led policemen to the exact locations of the makeshift storage facilities where the smuggled cigarettes were stored.