P50 million worth of smuggled cigarettes seized in Maguindanao del Norte

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April 3, 2026 | 5:40pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Police operatives seized no less than 50 million worth of cigarettes from Indonesia in an anti-smuggling operation in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte on Friday morning, April 3.

The operation, based on reports by villagers who sighted men piling large boxes containing imported cigarettes in an open field in Barangay Dinaig Proper in Datu Odin Sinsuat, involved employees of the Bureau of Customs, agents from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, officials of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station and the Maguindanao del Norte Provincial Police Office and personnel of different units of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters at noon Friday that the contraband, possibly brought to the area by seafaring smugglers via a beachfront barangay in Datu Odin Sinsuat, was to be fetched by trucks and transported to buyers in different towns in Maguindanao del Norte and in the nearby Cotabato City.

De Guzman said it was villagers and local executives in Datu Odin Sinsuat who reported the supposed delivery of the smuggled cigarettes to retailers outside of the municipality, enabling BOC employees, agents of the CIDG and officials of different police units under PRO-BAR to promptly prevent the smuggling attempt.

Police officials and BOC employees placed at no less than P50 million their initial estimate of the smuggled cigarettes confiscated during the operation that the local government unit of Datu Odin Sinsuat supported extensively.