The Customs Enforcement Group has launched a manhunt against a foreign national and a Filipino believed to be responsible in smuggling high-powered firearms from Indonesia to Mariveles, Bataan last month.

Customs Enforcement and Security Service (ESS) director Nestorio Gualberto, head of the fact-finding committee, said the subject of an intensified police manhunt is British national Dave Smith and a Filipino from Subic, Olongapo City.

Smith is the registered owner of the seized private yacht M/Y Mou Man Tai that was used to transport the assault rifles and pistols from the Panamanian vessel M/V Captain Ufuk while the Filipino was not identified by Gualberto for intelligence purposes.

He said a said police tracker team was formed to pursue Smith and the suspected Filipino gun smuggler, adding that they can disclose the identities of the "big fish" who allegedly had a hand on the gun shipment once they are captured.

The Bureau of Customs (BoC) earlier announced that Bruce Jones, the ship master of M/V Captain Ufuk, is in its custody after he voluntarily surrendered to the bureau early this month.

Jones told investigators that he was hired by La Plata Trading Inc. through the help of Smith last August to buy the vessel worth $800,000 in Turkey and the Indonesia-made assault rifles and pistols for $86,000.

“We asked the Australian Federal Police to assist us in the technical investigation of the case especially deciphering (information on) the mobiles phones and the computer we recovered from the vessel,” Gualberto said.

The official said the new evidence they got will lead them to the alleged buyers and the location of the missing high-powered firearms that were taken by Smith and the Filipino from the ship and were reportedly deposited on the coastline of Bataan.

Meanwhile, Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales threw his support on the move by the Office of the Ombudsman to regulate the release of the Statement of Assets and Liabilities (SALN) for sake of public disclosure.

Morales said the rights of career service officials are protected with the measure, adding that “it will lessen the danger of government employees, particularly BoC employees, from being victimized by some extortionists.”

“We should also likewise protect the lives and properties of BoC employees from being prospective victims of criminal elements such as robbery and kidnap-for-ransom groups,” he stressed.