Customs raids, padlocks Kimstore

Kimstore, one of the top online shop in the country, were selling 'smuggled' gadgets, says BOC.

MANILA - Popular online shop Kimstore was raided by officers of Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Monday for selling 'smuggled' high-end gadgets worth millions of pesos.

According to BOC, they have received intelligence report that the online store which has a warehouse at Lakandula Street in Tondo, Manila is

"Among the items seized were units of Iphone 7 cellular phones, Macbook laptops, Samsung Galaxy S7 series phones, Nexus 6Ps phones, Zenfone 3 Ultra phones, Sony Xperia phones, Canon cameras, tablets and music players, audio accessories, and gadgets for safety and security," the BOC agents said.

"There are plenty of cases wherein high-end communication and electronic gadgets are smuggled into the country through misdeclaration schemes – a top form of smuggling – used by smugglers to defraud and avoid paying correct duties and taxes to the government," Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) Director Neil L. Estrella said.




An initial report submitted by Intelligence Officer Joel Pinawin showed that Kim Store is owned by a certain ‘Francis’, a Filipino-Chinese businessman in Binondo, who is engaged in selling smuggled items online."

The staff manning Kim Store’s depot failed to present documents for the imported items, the bureau noted.




"We are still validating some intelligence reports, and we will fully identify the real owners of Kim Store in the next few days," Pinawin added.

The warehouse was padlocked by the bureau, with the seized items inside the depot and guarded by CIIS agents. [With reports from GMA News Online]