BOC foils attempt to smuggle P240M worth of Thai sugar

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Saturday said it foiled an attempt to smuggle P240 million worth of refined sugar from Thailand into the Philippines.

In a report, the BOC said personnel of the Customs Police Division-Enforcement and Security Service (CPD-ESS), Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS), and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) apprehended the vessel carrying sugar in the vicinity of Bauan and Mabini breakwaters in Batangas on Friday, January 13. 

The agency said the seized white refined sugar with a net weight of 50 kilograms per bag was consigned to Stone Int'l. Co. Ltd. from shipper The Thai Sugar Trading Corp. 

"We are appalled at the audacity of these groups to continue with their activities despite the BOC’s intensified efforts lately to apprehend them. But thankfully, our team is just as relentless and tenacious to, once and for all, end such reprehensible acts," Customs Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz said in a statement. 

The BOC said the operation came following a report that Voi MV Sunward was carrying sugar with no notice of arrival filed with the bureau. 

Authorities boarded the vessel and talked with its skipper, Captain Rosalito Lamoste.

The agency, citing Lamoste, said the vessel arrived around 5 p.m. on Thursday, January 12.

Batangas Port district collector Rhea Gregorio issued the corresponding Warrant of Seizure and Detention (WSD) against the vessel and sugar shipment. —VBL, GMA Integrated News