The Bureau of Customs recently created a task force that will run after fictitious importers as part of the Bureau's anti-smuggling measures.

BOC commissioner Ruffy Biazon, in a circular, created Task Force "Oplan Baklas" which would scrutinize the documents of its current list of accredited importers to detect any fabricated entries possibly made by "fly by night" or fictitious companies.

"In our many seizures of illegally imported goods, we encountered some of these importers to be non-existent, although accredited with the Bureau of Customs," Biazon said.

He said the BOC's list of accredited importers has been in existence for years already.

"With our discovery of non-existent and fictitious importers, we will now carefully scrutinize the documents of each accredited importer to validate and verify their actual existence," he added.

The task force is divided into three groups, namely: the Reconciliation Team, the Filtering Team and the Evaluation Team.

With the creation of the task force, BOC anticipates rise in the number of cases to be filed against alleged smugglers.

Also, the task force is expected to provide the bureau with a more thorough view of operational details utilized by smugglers and their cohorts giving BOC officials a better idea of how they could counter smuggling tactics in the future.*