Customs officers seized a large piece of luggage filled with fake Winston packaging labels and several other boxes of contraband from an arriving Chinese woman on Monday.
32-year-old Shaoshan Yang arrived at NAIA Terminal 1 at 10am on board China Southern flight CZ 3091 from Guangzhou, China.
Yang was asked to produce documentation showing she was authorised to bring the suspected contraband into the country. Airport officials questioned Yang and found out another Chinese person was in the airport waiting to pick her up.
Airport security set aside Yang and discovered her pickup person was Shi Peiquing of Manila City Plaza in Quiapo, Manila – the information was based on Peiquing’s BIR TIN information.
Authorities say that Peiquing disappeared from NAIA shortly after Yang was arrested, signifying that she was notified of the issue.
A person working for NAIA had issued a ‘Visitor’s Pass’ for Peiquing – police have not disclosed who that person was as the airport official is now under investigation for issuing such a pass.
Airport officials said the two Chinese women are “familiar faces” at the airport, often bringing women’s undergarments and beauty products from China.
Customs officials said that Yang arrived with one piece of luggage filled with packing labels for Winston cigarettes and boxes containing fake Adidas shoes and beauty products.
Officials said that the Winston cigarette labels were enough to produce 18,500 packs of counterfeit cigarettes – bypassing government taxes by using them to conceal fake products.
Airport officials said they are coordinating with those companies affected by the fake products – police said that it is possible that such contraband may have slipped into the country in the past month.