SAN SIMON, Pampanga – A joint-team from the Bureau of Customs and the police swooped down on two warehouses here last Tuesday and found some P300 million-worth of machines for manufacturing fake cigarettes.
San Simon police head Chief Inspector Louie Gonzaga said representatives from tobacco firms whose products were being counterfeited confirmed that the cigarettes found in the warehouses were fake.
Gonzaga did not immediately identify foreigners who were arrested during the raid, but sources from Camp Olivas said the suspects were Chinese.
He also said that fake cigarettes found in the warehouses had fake stamps of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
Gonzaga justified the non-disclosure of the identities of the suspects, saying this would scuttle follow-up operations against other suspects.
