EBU CITY, Philippines — More than P138 million worth of illegal, smuggled, and counterfeit cigarettes were seized during the simultaneous joint operations conducted by the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) across Cebu City on Thursday afternoon, February 19.

As of Friday, February 20, the seized cigarettes are now under BIR custody for further examination and case processing. In a joint operation, the CCPO and the BIR Region 13 confiscated a total of 135,936 packs of cigarettes suspected to be smuggled, unregistered, or counterfeit.

Police placed the estimated market value of the seized products at P138,099,550.34. Meanwhile, the BIR said the haul represents P110.9 million in unpaid taxes.