Hair salon owners jailed for smuggling 2.5 tons of tobacco into UK
Two hair salon owners who smuggled 2.5 tons of tobacco into the UK in a £450,000 tax fraud have been jailed.Mohammed Kattany, 37, director of Unique Hairdressers in Bramhall, hid smuggled fruit-flavored tobacco from Dubai in freight imports, postal parcels and his own luggage.He was assisted by accomplice Ahmed Al-Salaima, 33, who owned Snipz hairdressers in Withington.Both men were arrested in July 2013 after HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigators seized illegal tobacco at the Port of Felixstowe, Heathrow Airport and Manchester Airport.The smuggling attempts were traced back to companies or addresses associated with Kattany and Al-Salaima.Manchester Crown Court heard Kattany was also the owner of Sweet and Salt, on Wilmslow Road, Rusholme. He used both businesses in the smuggling attempts.Kattany would make multiple trips abroad, often to Dubai, in order to arrange the smuggling consignments and was caught with undeclared tobacco products in his own luggage at customs in the UK.Al-Salaima would use Snipz to deliver and distribute the illegal tobacco into smaller vans.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/hair-salon-owners-jailed-smuggling-10799504
Vinh Long seizes 2000 fake helmets
VINH LONG (VNS) — A market inspection team discovered a home-based facility mass producing falsely labelled helmets yesterday in Tam Binh District of this southern province.Authorities seized over 2,000 finished counterfeit helmets, two drilling machines, presses and raw materials, as well as the components used in manufacturing helmets, such as foam, straps and stamps.The owner of the house, Nguyen Quoc Thong, revealed that the facility had been leased by Nguyen Van Trieu from Thanh Quoi Commune, Long Ho District. Initially, Trieu said he had leased the house for storing goods, until some other people joined them with machines, hiring another house in the commune as a space for painting helmets. The facility has six employees who assemble and paint the helmets.The production machines used at the facility are very crude. There is insufficient sponge on the inside of the helmets.
http://vietnamnews.vn/society/281757/vinh-long-seizes-2000-fake-helmets.html
Lear MoreFake hoverboards: Chicago customs officers seize more than 16,000 counterfeits
Customs officers in Chicago have seized at least 16,000 counterfeit hoverboards they say can pose a serious safety risk.Authorities continue to process more than 42,000 boxes of what they believe to be fake hoverboards. The substandard products – enough to fill two warehouses – were seized in just one week in January. “We were holding two-thirds of an air freight cargo plane with just hoverboards on hold. Two-thirds and then plane after plane after plane for a week,” said James Putman, U.S. Customs and Border Protection.This is the largest seizure of its kind since hoverboards first hit store shelves in the United States. The self-balancing scooters are so expensive that manufacturers – especially in China – have been cutting corners to get them to consumers at a cheaper price. “The batteries do not meet safety standards. The chargers as well,” said William Ferrara, U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
http://abc7chicago.com/news/fake-hoverboards-seized-by-customs-officers-in-chicago/1176421/
Lear MoreNew Brunswick Must Continue Action Against Contraband Tobacco
Today, the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco (NCACT) encouraged the government of New Brunswick to continue to increase action against the province’s growing contraband tobacco problem in next week’s provincial budget.”Illegal cigarettes are a growing and significant problem in New Brunswick,” said Gary Grant, a 39-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service and national spokesperson for the NCACT. “Just last week, RCMP in the province highlighted that there has been little change in the flow of smuggled tobacco into the province. If anything, the criminals are adapting their smuggling networks to limit large seizures. That’s a reminder that this is big business for criminal gangs, and they are going to do what it takes to preserve it.”The RCMP has indicated that smugglers have adapted to smaller shipments to avoid large busts, like that in late November where more than 1.5 million cigarettes were seized near Val-Doucet, along with guns and illicit alcohol.
MPs probe further on cigarette smuggling
AKEL MP IriniCharalambidou on Tuesday questioned the customs department’s decision to ask the attorney-general to suspend prosecution of individuals implicated in a cigarette smuggling case in 2009 because they could not locate them.The House Watchdog Committee discussed the matter on Tuesday and questions were raised about the handling of two cases by the customs department.The MP said they were surprised to see a letter from customs asking for the prosecution of three individuals and a company to be suspended supposedly because they could not locate the defendants to deliver the charge sheets.PetrosClerides, who was attorney-general at the time, wrote to customs on July 26, 2013, noting that “it is very strange that delivering the charge sheets was not possible” considering that it was a well known company and the individuals were very well known members of Cypriot society.
http://cyprus-mail.com/2016/01/26/mps-probe-further-on-cigarette-smuggling/
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Fake Domestic Products Push Chinese Consumers to Shop Overseas
SEOUL, Jan.26 (Korea Bizwire) – The Chinese Spring Festival, which is the biggest holiday in China, and the period when the most Chinese people travel abroad, will start in two weeks. As Chinese tourists are known for clearing out the shelves when shopping, nearby countries such as Korea and Japan are looking forward to the visitors. However, the Chinese government is not happy, as the money that would otherwise be spent in the domestic market is leaking out to foreign countries.The Chinese government is working hard to bring overseas spending back to China. One of the biggest reasons Chinese consumers shop abroad is because of the difference in the quality of products. Chinese consumers think that products from Korea or Japan offer better quality compared to their own. The Chinese government is trying hard to change the perception of local consumers.
http://koreabizwire.com/fake-domestic-products-push-chinese-consumers-to-shop-overseas/48874
Lear MoreVolume of smuggled, counterfeit products in Turkey above $17 bln
In a statement to mark International Customs Day on Tuesday, MKG spokesperson Ali ErcanÖzgür said the volume of such products circulating around the world is hovering at around $1 trillion, while it is estimated to have exceeded $17.2 billion in Turkey.Illegal trade is a multidimensional problem posing a threat to the whole economy as well as to individuals, Özgür said.A separate report published by the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) early According to the MKG statement, 45 percent of the smuggled products that the security officials seized in 2014 were electronic goods, while 22 percent were transport vehicles, 5.9 percent chemicals and 4.1 percent cigarettes and alcohol.last year claimed that Turkey is the second largest market of counterfeit products in the world after China.
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Over EUR 30 mln worth of smuggling items busted in Lithuania in 2015
Lithuanian customs officers in 2015 detained more than 30 million euros worth of smuggling items, informs LETA/BNS according to preliminary data.
More than 24 million euros in damages to the state was prevented by the actions, the Customs Department said.Last year also marks the biggest shipment of smuggling tobacco busted since Lithuania’s customs was restored 25 years ago. Customs officers apprehended 219 million cigarettes (nearly 11 million packs) estimated at 26.5 million euros, which indicates a double increase from 13 million euros worth of detained cigarettes in 2014.Unlike the tendencies of previous years when largest amounts of tobacco were busted on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, Lithuanian customs officers last year caught more illegal Belarusian tobacco brought into Lithuania from other countries of the European Union (EU).
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics/?doc=115788
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New OPP unit to target contraband cigarette
The Ontario government is creating a new provincial police unit aimed at cracking down on contraband tobacco.The new team — part of the OPP’s Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau — will be dedicated to investigating the smuggling and trafficking of contraband tobacco and to eliminating sophisticated contraband tobacco networks across Ontario.The RCMP estimates that 175 criminal organizations are involved in contraband tobacco in Canada, and believe that many use it to finance more serious illegal activity like drug and weapon trafficking.The new enforcement team fulfills a commitment from last spring’s budget.
http://london.ctvnews.ca/new-opp-unit-to-target-contraband-cigarettes-1.2750955
Lear MoreIllegal cigarette smuggler from Erdington jailed after gang evaded £2.4 million of tax
A MAN from Erdington who was part of a multi-million pound cigarettes smuggling gang has been jailed.Raymond Preece, 60, from Gravelly Lane, was arrested after evidence linked him to an operation which attempted to defraud the government of an estimated £2.4 million.StevenZindani, 59, and Gerard Smythe, 43, were initially arrested by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) after officers raided an industrial unit in June 2012 in Tyseley, Birmingham.Zindani, from Sharmans Cross Road, Solihull was found offloading cigarettes from the back of a lorry while Smythe, from Tilehouse Lane, Tidbury Green, Solihull loaded them into a van.Officers seized nearly six million counterfeit and non-UK duty paid cigarettes, which were packaged in boxes labelled as desserts.A few days earlier, HMRC seized a further 4.5m illicit cigarettes when they searched an unoccupied industrial unit in Redditch.Evidence revealed Zindani and Smythe had been working together to arrange delivery and distribution of the illicit cigarettes.
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