“Hot” imported frozen meat seized, buried

Weighs nearly 3-K kilos and valued at over P300,000

SAN NICOLAS, Ilocos Norte, Nov. 1, 2019–Police confiscated a volume of suspected “hot” imported meat packed in 147 cartons with Germany and France markings, the PNP report here said.

The PNP report said that the frozen meat weighed 2,665.07 kilograms or almost 3,000 kilos valued at P319,808.

Municipal meat inspector Leonard delos Santos earlier tipped off the police about a delivery van loaded with the questionable meat.

Delos Santos dispatched his two aides Medel Daoang and Jesus Felipe as an advance party to a house at Brgy. 6 this town where the hot meat cargoes were being unloaded from the van.

When the van driver and his helpers saw the approaching meat inspector’s aides, the surprised suspects scampered and fled to an unknown direction.

The San Nicolas police operatives and Highway Patrol Group troopers rushed to the scene and seized the hot meat as well as the subject van allegedly owned by a person from Mexico, Pampanga.

The consignee at Brgy. 6 allegedly failed to show any documents such as a certificate of meat inspection and shipping papers, etc prompting the police authorities to confiscate the hot cargoes.

Provincial Veterinarian Dr. Loida Valenzuela and Municipal Agriculturist Norma Calamayan also conducted an investigation and reported the incident to the higher authorities including Gov. Matthew Marcos Manotoc and Vice Gov. Cecilia Araneta-Marcos.

For the sake of proper disposal, police said, all the seized frozen meat was buried in an appropriate dug pit to allay public fear that the meat might be cooked for sale in the local market as a “bagnet”, “chicharon” or other processed food. (tri-media report)