Clandestine cigarette factory in Villasis raided
24 CHINESE ARRESTED
VILLASIS– Joint operatives of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Philippine Army and the Philippine National Police swooped down on a clandestine cigarette factory in Barangay Unzad this town last Friday morning that yielded packaging machines and billions worth of fake cigarettes.
Antero Prado Jr, Customs technical assistant, said in an interview that the volume of imported tobacco leaves and the nine big machines for the manufacture of fake cigarettes, their packaging and other items seized “are mind boggling”.
A BOC operative holds a pack of the fake cigarettes. (Punchphoto by Ray Zambrano)
He said the equipment can produce around 240 big boxes a day of counterfeit cigarettes of different brands like Marlboro, Fortune, Jackpot, More, Mighty, Marvels, Winston. Their packaging looks exactly like the original, he added.
He added the government has been deprived of hundreds of millions of pesos of taxes monthly because of the factory’s illegal operation.
The factory is estimated to have been operating for the last 10 years. It has about 50 local workers and 50 other foreign nationals who work in different shifts.
At the time the raid was conducted, about 24 Chinese nationals and some local laborers were arrested. He said their papers would be checked with the Bureau of Immigration.
By virtue of a letter of authority signed by Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, two teams from the BOC’s Special Studies and Project Development Committee, representatives from La Union Collection District, Customs police in La Union, 702nd Army Brigade in Manaoag town and the Pangasinan Police’s Public Safety Company and Special Weapons and Tactics and the town police, implemented the raid.
Police keep a close watch on workers inside the factory. (Punchphoto by Ray Zambrano)
Prado said it was the biggest yield so far. He added they conducted similar raid two weeks ago in Davao and Cagayan de Oro City warehouses of tobacco products.
“The factory here was discreetly kept located in a vegetative area away from the national road so it is not easily detected,” he said. The barangay folks thought it was part of a farm.
The raid confirmed that the factory was the source of of counterfeit cigarette production in Luzon.
He said their intelligence network will not stop digging deeper into the syndicate’s operations following the successful raid.
The owner of the factory was not yet identified as of press time.
Villasis Mayor Nonato Abrenica said they were not aware of the operation of the factory.
“During our tax campaign in the barangays, it was not included, there was no activity (in that area), in short. It was well hidden in that area,” he said. “Even people in the barangay did not know anything about it,” he added.
“Definitely somebody has to account for this,” Prado said. (Tita Roces)
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