MICP X-ray seizes Motorcycles

          The MICP X-ray Field Office has recently detected two units of motorcycles of various brand and make hidden inside several balikbayan boxes as part of its intensified X-ray scanning operation on Informal Entry Shipments in connection with the recent developments which were publicized in the national newspapers that high-end motorcycles were smuggled into the country especially at the southern ports using allegedly balikbayan boxes.

           

            Based on the report submitted by MICP Field Officer and concurrent Luzon Area Supervisor Renato D. Palgan to XIP Head Atty. Ma. Lourdes V. Mangaoang, CEO VI, the smuggled used motorcycles were part and parcel of forty-footer shipment with Container Van. No. MSKU 1192217, declared as personal effects and household goods, consigned to Francisco Adriano et. al. / Ocean Star Freight Express, which arrived at MICP on June 2, 2011 from Hawaii. After the filing of import entry, the said shipment was subjected to X-ray inspection on June 9, 2011 by X-ray Inspector Felicito A. Acero in compliance with the memorandum of the Commissioner of Customs last May 30, 2011. However, during the image analysis of the shipment it showed that some suspicious undeclared items were maliciously hidden inside the inner portion of the container van that led to further verification of the shipment using the manual type of examination to ascertain the findings of X-ray printout copy. And it was discovered during the spot-checking conducted by the assigned customs examiners of the Informal Entry Division in the presence of the representatives from the customs brokerage firm and the XIP that the suspected items included one unit of fully assembled motorcycle and one unit disassembled (chop-chop) motorcycle placed inside several packages of balikbayan boxes, thus, the entire shipment was subjected to a hold order for a 100 percent physical examination.

            According to Renato D. Palgan, the latest apprehension of motorcycles inside a consolidation shipment shows the effectiveness and efficiency of non-intrusive inspection of container cargo using the X-ray scanner, unlike opening the container van and removing and inspecting all the almost 300 balikbayan boxes one by one and then returning them back to the container van which is both unrealistic and time-consuming considering that there are several hundreds consolidation shipments arriving daily from abroad.