Boxes of smuggled cigarettes unloaded at Green Leaf 88 waste disposal facility. Contributed photo
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Over 6,000 master cases of smuggled cigarettes and assorted imported vegetables were destroyed by the Bureau of Customs-Port of Subic on Friday at a waste disposal facility in Porac, Pampanga.
Nine 40-footer container trucks ferried the cases of various brands of cigarettes believed to be counterfeit and several tons of vegetables from the Subic Bay Freeport to the Green Leaf 88 Non-Hazardous Waste Disposal Facility.
The contraband was shipped from China.
Deputy commissioner Maita Acevedo, chief of Cargo Disposal and Auction Division of BOC-Subic, said the items were ordered disposed on the strength of a court order following forfeiture proceedings against the misdeclared cargoes.
“We are here to supervise the condemnation process and to see to it that all materials brought into the Green Leaf 88 waste disposal facility are grinded (sic) up to the last particles,” said Acevedo while directing her men to properly make an inventory of the items seized on separate occasions in Subic.
Representatives from the Japan Tobacco International, Philipp Morris, and the Bureau of Plan Industry- Central Luzon were also present during the condemnation and grinding of the contraband.
Robert Gaza, owner of the Green Leaf 88, said all items brought for destruction are grounded into tiny pieces of materials. The facility has three giant electric shredding machines that simultaneously operate to accommodate huge volume of materials brought there for destruction which, he said, are mostly forfeited smuggled perishable and non-perishable goods. With media reports
