By FRANCO G. REGALA
SAN SIMON, Pampanga – Operatives of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the 3rd Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (3-CIDG) uncovered a fake cigarette factory inside the San Simon Industrial Park here, the other day.
According to Revenue Officer Sonny Advincula, Head of the BIR Strike Team, they confiscated at least 33.5 million filter rods from the place, enough to make 1.6 million cigarettes.
The Strike Team was also able to recover three unregistered cigarette making machines and 20 bales of acetate used in making cigarette filters.
Meanwhile, another establishment in the same area yielded fake cigarettes bearing the logos of Marlboro, Mighty, Fortune and Camel, among others, all with fake tax stamps.
The warehouse also housed dozens of sacks and boxes of unprocessed tobacco estimated to be worth millions of pesos.
The warehouses are currently padlocked as appropriate charges are being prepared against the owners of the warehouses and while BIR inventory of all the materials is ongoing.