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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
ALERT operatives of the Bureau of
Customs (BOC) on Monday foiled another attempt by big time smugglers
to sneak in some P35-million worth of highly regulated imported
goods that include seven luxury vehicles.
The smuggled goods contained in
11 container vans were seized in separated operations by elements of
the Run After the Smugglers (RATS) team of the Office of the
Commissioner and the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service
Operations Section-Intelligence Division (CIIS-ID).
Customs Commissioner Napoleon
Morales immediately filed five criminal cases before the Department
of Justice (DOJ) against 15 brokers and officers of corporations who
facilitated the said importation for violation of the Tariff and
Customs Code and other laws.
Criminally charged were the
officers and proprietors and brokers of Kingland Agro Trading
Int’l., Jobengo Feed Supply and General Merchandise, Roadrunning
Racing Center, Kat-Leen Trading and FMA Motors Inc.
Seized by the RATS team were
three luxury utility vehicles, a BMW, a Mercedes Benz and
Volkswagen, five units of disassembled minivans and five units of
used Korean passenger vans. They were declared as used replacement
truck parts to circumvent Executive Order 156, which prohibits
importation of used vehicles.
The CIIS-ID, on the other hand,
seized four of right-hand drive Pajeros, one Harley Davidson 400
c.c. Motorcyles, a container of used clothing and 5,000 cartons of
frozen mackerel.
Deputy Commissioner Celso Templo
of the intelligence and enforcement group (IEG) explained that the
said items were all misdeclared and were immediately ordered seized
in favor of the government.
Templo explained that importation
of used clothing is prohibited, except if it is intended for
donation under the supervision of the Department of Social Welfare
and Development.
Deputy Commissioner Reynaldo,
who is also concurrent RATS executive director, said that the filing
of additional five criminal cases against erring importers and
brokers now brings to 44 the total number of cases filed under the
RATS program, involving 202 respondents.
Umali said that there would be no
let-up in the campaign against smugglers until they get convicted
and put behind bars.
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