Illegal tobacco hidden in Chinese cargo
A Chinese national faces deportation or up to 10 years in jail for illegally importing tobacco and cigarettes hidden in air filters into Victoria.Shijun Ai faced the Victorian County Court on Friday, having earlier pleaded guilty to charges of illegally importing tobacco into Australia, possessing tobacco, and using a false passport.
Ai admitted importing 837 kilograms of tobacco in loose form and cigarettes found hidden in cargo shipped to Australia from China between 2014 and 2015.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/a/32248383/illegal-tobacco-hidden-in-chinese-cargo/#page1
Lear MoreColorado smuggling to rocket with tobacco tax hike
An initiative that may appear on Colorado’s November’s ballot would, if adopted, nearly triple the state’s current cigarette excise tax. This, we believe the evidence shows, will usher in a wave of cigarette smuggling and other undesirable consequences.
Voters should think twice before adopting this tax increase. Research shows high excise taxes invite scofflaws to traffic in illicit cigarettes, encourage corruption among public officials and trigger violence against people, property and police.
We created a statistical model in 2008 to measure how many packs of cigarettes are smuggled into or out of American states and have updated it routinely since then. In our latest analysis, which uses data through 2013, we find that Colorado has a relatively low smuggling rate of about 12 percent. Most of the smuggling comes from what we call “casual” smuggling.
The casual smuggler is the Coloradan who crosses into a different city, county, state or taxing jurisdiction to buy cigarettes, or buys them online. The key is that the person buys cigarettes for his or her own use. Contrast this with “commercial” smuggling, which is an organized crime that brings in truckloads of cigarettes from distant locales to be sold illegally in Colorado. This happens all over the country — for example, cigarettes with Virginia tax stamps have beenconfiscated in California. (A tax stamp is evidence that the pack is subject to the taxing authority of a particular state.)
http://completecolorado.com/pagetwo/2016/08/05/colorado-smuggling-to-rocket-with-tobacco-tax-hike/
Cornwall Regional Task Force seized $175K of contraband in July
About $175,000 worth of contraband tobacco was seized by the Cornwall Regional Task Force (CRTF) during recent smuggling arrests.
CRTF officer in charge, Insp. Steve Ethier claimed co-operation from residents along the St. Lawrence River has aided their surveillance. During the late hours of July 19, CRTF officers were called to a St. Lawrence River residence in South Glengarry where they spotted a van without headlights departing the shoreline along County Road 2. The van, a 2002 Pontiac Montana, was stopped by police, forcing the occupants to flee on foot.Police were able to chase down Joey Bouchard, 18, of St-Stanislas-de-Kostka, Que., but the other suspect evaded capture.
Illicit tobacco: Three retailers share their experiences
Illicit cigarettes account for approximately one in six of those smoked in the UK last year and almost half of rolling tobacco is not legitimate.
The losses to government alone are shocking with the UK government missing on a potential £6million a day in tax revenue.
But what is the situation really like for Retail Newsagent readers who face it, in their communities, every day? We spoke to store owners across the British Isles to find out.
Lear MorePolice bust gang which made illegal tobacco-making machines
SHANGHAI police have busted a seven-member gang which produced and sold illegal tobacco machines nationwide, Shanghai Television reported yesterday.
In China, tobacco production and sales are strictly under state control.
In May, local police were tipped off about a suspect surnamed Zhai in Jiading District.
Over the next two months, police discovered that Zhai and other gang members had an assembly of tobacco-making machines and sold them to other provinces like Fujian, Liaoning and Guangdong.
Police eventually busted the gang on July 12 in Shanghai and Fujian Province and seized 19 tobacco machines.
According to police, the gang had been running the business since October 2014. They bought the machine parts from other places and hired people to assemble them in Jiading. These machines were sold at prices ranging between 250,000 yuan to 400,000 yuan.
A machine of this kind can produce 2,000 cigarettes a minute. In a year, it can produce cigarettes with a value of 10 million yuan.
Lear More
18000 smuggled cigarettes seized at Dublin Airport
The cigarettes were found in the checked-in luggage of a 42-year-old man from Estonia.
They are worth around €9,700 with a potential loss to the Exchequer of €7,700.
The man was arrested and appeared before Dublin District Court on Tuesday afternoon.
Judge Miriam Walsh remanded him in custody to Cloverhill prison until next Friday.
Anyone with information on tax evasion or smuggling is asked to report it to Revenue on Freephone 1800 295 295.
Lear MorePeople are selling fake Jeffree Star Lipsticks and it could be seriously dangerous
It might seem like a bargain to shop the pricey celeb beauty lines elsewhere, but buying imitation cosmetics could have a very dangerous outcome. Dermatologist, Dr. Christine Choi Kim, says that counterfeit beauty products sometimes contain ingredients that should never be applied to your skin.
“Dangerous ingredients such as mercury, lead, arsenic, and cyanide have been found in counterfeit cosmetics,” she told Seventeen.com “There is no way to know what ingredients are used… Some may be completely harmless (just not genuine) and some could be potentially harmful.”
As if that wasn’t terrifying enough, toxic add-ins aren’t the only thing you need to worry about. Dr. Choi Kim says that bacteria can also grow in knock-off beauty supplies. “Some fake products contain toxic ingredients that may cause mild to severe skin reactions, while other fake products may not contain toxic ingredients but may be diluted with water or contaminated by bacteria… You can have allergic and irritant reactions, infections from products contaminated with bacteria, and chemical burn-type reactions.”
http://www.seventeen.com/beauty/makeup-skincare/news/a42073/jeffree-star-cosmetics-knock-offs/
Lear MoreTerror Financing And The Black Market Cigarette Trade
In Pennsylvania last month, state representatives Russ Diamond and Rick Saccone challenged a $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase (which was later passed into law), arguing that the price hike would regressively target poorer smokers and encourage black market sales. More critically, the two lawmakers pointed out that increased sales of smuggled tobacco would put more money in the pockets of violent extremists who wish to do Americans harm.
That argument raised eyebrows in the press, but the point made by Diamond and Saccone is a critically important one. A major 2015 report from the State Department identified tobacco smuggling as a major threat to national security, noting that selling illegal cigarettes is a relatively “low-risk, high reward” activity for criminal networks and terror groups, who often join forces to exploit the illicit trade.
Chinese customs clean up ‘luxury’ smugglers.
The General Administration of Customs People’s Republic of China (GACC) has become increasingly successful in its ongoing crackdown on tobacco, liquor and luxurygoods smuggling through airports, ports and international border crossing points.
The GACC points to multiple examples where its officers have confiscated significant quantities of concealed tobacco, liquor, cosmetics and luxurygoods items – particularly watches.
These ongoing efforts also include two separate incidents in the last year where it has confiscated tobacco goods and prosecuted both smugglers and airport staff involved in the incidents.
Lear MoreStudent Hongtao Zhang jailed for dodging more than $460,000 in tax revenue by illegally importing almost 700,000 cigarettes
A HIGHLY organised tobacco smuggling operation run by a Chinese student couple in Adelaide has literally ended in tears in court on Tuesday, at least for one of them.
Hongtao Zhang wept in court on Tuesday as he was sentenced to four years and eight months jail after pleading guilty to dodging more than $460,000 in tax revenue by illegally importing almost 700,000 cigarettes into the state.
The whereabouts of his girlfriend Jie Li is unknown.