UK-bound fakes seized in Philippines

The Philippines’ Bureau of Customs last week seized a shipment of counterfeit cigarettes from China worth PHP18 million, according to a story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The fake Marlboro cigarettes, which had been declared as mono-acetate filter rods, arrived at the Manila International Container Port on Tuesday.

Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon, who was reported to have inspected the shipment together with the deputy U.K. ambassador to the Philippines, Trevor Lewis, said the cigarettes had been subjected to immediate seizure.

Lewis was quoted as saying that the risk to people’s health posed by their smoking fake cigarettes was greater [than that posed by smoking genuine cigarettes] because the counterfeits didn’t have proper filters.

“In reality, with the proper brand you have proper filters to prevent, offset some of the bad health effects,” he said.

“With these ones, they don’t have proper filters.

“They were produced as cheaply and as hastily as possible …”

Lewis said he was “pretty certain” that the fake cigarettes were destined for the U.K.

Had the shipment reached the U.K. and been sold there, he added, the British government would have lost $4 million.