P3.5-M worth of smuggled cigarettes seized in Maguindanao del Norte

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January 21, 2026 | 6:16pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Policemen seized P3.5 million worth of imported cigarettes found inside a van-type truck intercepted at a checkpoint at a stretch of the Secretary Ramos Highway in Barangay Pinantao in Parang, Maguindanao del Norte on Tuesday, January 20.

The now-detained driver of the truck carrying the contraband, Ebrahim Ayob Ansao, 42, and his 48-year-old helper, Rashid Abdullah Kasan, have admitted that they were to deliver the Indonesian-made cigarettes to buyers in Parang and other towns in Maguindanao del Norte and in Cotabato City, both in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

They both promised to identify to police investigators the smuggler they worked for to enable prosecution in court by the Police Regional Police Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the PRO-BAR, told reporters on Wednesday that the P3.5 million worth of cigarettes confiscated by policemen at a checkpoint in Barangay Pinantao shall be turned over to the Bureau of Customs for its disposition.

Officials of the police units involved in the anti-smuggling operation that led to the seizure of the imported cigarettes also impounded the truck driven by Ansao, bearing license plates KBC 8662.

Ansao and Kasan have told investigators from the Parang Municipal Police Station and intelligence operatives from PRO-BAR’s headquarters in Camp SK Pendatun in Barangay Making in the municipality that the smuggled cigarettes they were to transport to different areas in BARMM are from a supplier based in Zamboanga del Sur province in Region 9.