Smuggled vegetables seized

Subic Bay Freeport — Operatives from the Bureau of Customs Port of Subic and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority intercepted nine 40-footer container vans at this premier Freeport zone on Wednesday.

SBMA chairperson and administrator Jonathan Tan narrated on Thursday that the nine container vans have all shipments declared as cartons of frozen lobster balls, which were allegedly consigned to Rianne Food Products.

Tan disclosed that the Port of Subic received the nine shipments on 1 November with a declaration that all shipments contained 39,750 cartons of frozen lobster balls but upon checking, operatives found that most of the shipments contained either fresh potatoes, fresh carrots, fresh radish and fresh broccoli.

The BoC Port of Subic seized the said shipments for proper disposition.

Tan lauded the vigilance of the two agencies, citing that both the SBMA and the BoC Port of Subic are in line with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s thrust of thwarting smuggling in the country.

As of the time of inspection, the BoC Port of Subic has sent an alert order for six more 40-footer container vans that are suspected to be misdeclared agricultural products.