P34 million worth of smuggled goods discovered at Customs depot in Laguna

By Ronron
November 22, 2007

Authorities discovered on Thursday morning some P34 million worth of smuggled goods kept inside 10 container vans at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) depot in Laguna province.

Sr. Supt. Mark Edison Belarma, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Region IV-A, said the suspected smuggled items include cellular phones, branded watches, branded wallets, sugar and 240,000 pieces of pornographic DVD movies.

Belarma said the said items were initially declared as misdeclared goods when they arrived at the BOC main office in Manila City. Three companies reportedly owned the said items.

Thus, pending the investigation, the items were kept at the BOC depot in Barangay Mayapa, Canlubang.

Belarma said that with the permission of the court, officials from the BOC, lead by Commissioner Napoleon Morales, opened the vans past 9am yesterday.

Belarma said that now that the items are known, the case in court could progress as these may be used as evidence./DMS