Smuggling of gold: Chennai airport officer & four others held.
CHENNAI: Officials of the the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) busted a gold smuggling syndicate at the Chennai international airport on Saturday and arrested five people, including a senior customs officer. Though the names of the officer and the other accused have not been revealed, sources said the officer was of the rank of a superintendent. The crackdown led to a seizure of 23kg of gold worth 7.825 crore. In a communication issued on Sunday, DRI said that on Saturday they apprehended four passengers, who had arrived at Anna International Airport from Singapore and Malaysia, with 12.95kg of gold bars. The delinquent officer, who was waiting to receive the gold from them on behalf of a Chennai receiver, and who was planning to allow the passengers go undetected, was also apprehended. The DRI’s follow-up search at the receiver’s residence and that of a near-relative resulted in seizure of further 10.2kg of smuggled gold and 24.43 lakh in cash. Later, while searching a grey-market shop owned by the receiver, officers of DRI recovered 48 drones (restricted for import) valued at about Rs 23 lakhs, and several high-end cameras and accessories. The passengers intercepted at the airport were also carrying high-value cameras and accessories.
Lear MoreIllicit Liquor worth Rs. 1.1 crore seized in Mathura
In an intensive drive, the Mathura police seized illicit liquor worth over Rs. 1.1 crore from interstate gangs that were trying to smuggle it in various vehicles including an ambulance, the city police chief said Friday. Senior police officer Satyarth Aniruddha Pankaj said the seizures were made over a period of 16 hours. “The liquor was being smuggled using different type of vehicles including by ambulance by eight interstate smugglers,” he said. He said the biggest haul of 1,198 boxes, valued at Rs. 50 lakh, was recovered Friday from four interstate smugglers, during checking at Kotban border under Kosi Kalan police station. An SUV, a truck (both bearing number plates), an ambulance and a car without number plates were also recovered, he said. Mr Pankaj said the police attached to Shergarh/Chatta police station recovered 950 bags of Indian liquor without label valued at Rs. 40 lakh from a truck being escorted by an SUV from Patel Chowk Friday afternoon. Police recovered 350 boxes of illicit liquor worth Rs. 20 lakh from Yamuna Expressway while being smuggled in a truck and a car by two interstate smugglers.
https://www.ndtv.com/cities/illicit-liquor-worth-rs-1-1-crore-seized-in-mathura-police-2049863
Lear MoreAuthorities probe dirty tactics in counterfeit laundry detergent scheme
Israeli authorities have launched an investigation into allegations of an ongoing counterfeit laundry detergent scheme. A Channel 13 TV report said tax authorities were probing allegations that up to 66 tons of Ariel detergent sold to Israeli consumers over the last year were actually an inexpensive and possibly hazardous product imported from Turkey.
Lear MoreAmazon Give Power to Brands to Eliminate Fake Goods from Website
In order to eliminate fake and counterfeit listing, Amazon will hand over direct powers to brands to remove frauds from and improve the shopping experience. Companies will be able to directly remove fake listings, under the company’s new Project Zero programme .Introduction of an additional tool dubbed “product serialization” allows them even greater control. Manufacturers can now assign unique serial numbers to every product they sell and require Amazon to scan those serial numbers and check authenticity on every sale. Besides the two new features, Amazon claims overall improvement in automatic detection of counterfeits. The e-commerce giant says that its machine learning-powered tools now “proactively stop 100 times more suspected counterfeit products as compared to what we reactively remove based on reports from brands”.
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Gold worth Rs 21 lakh seized at Mangaluru Airport.
MANGALURU: Custom officials at Mangaluru International Airportdetected three different cases to gold smuggling on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, seized 655.94 grams of 24 carat pure gold valued at Rs 21.65 lakh from passengers arriving from Dubai. While in two cases gold was concealed in the undergarments of passengers in the form of paste, customs officials found gold concealed as gold strips in measuring tape.
Lear MoreP740-million fake, smuggled goods seized in Pasay, Manila warehouses.
Various counterfeit products, such as clothes and cosmetics, worth P740 million were discovered in two warehouses in Manila and Pasay recently, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) said Friday. The bureau’s intelligence group inspected the two warehouses where the fake items were reportedly being stored before their distribution to the local market. Fake branded footwear, wearing apparels, cosmetics, toys, and cellphone accessories were uncovered in a warehouse located in Baclaran, Pasay City in the first raid on May 21. It stemmed from a tip that the warehouse was storing fake goods that would be sold in the market, according to the bureau. In a follow-inspection a week later, various smuggled and unregistered medical products were then seized in a warehouse in Sta. Cruz in Manila. The items discovered on the first warehouse were seized for violating Republic Act (R.A.) no. 8293 or the Intellectual Property (IP) Code of the Philippines; and Section 118 (f) of RA 10863, otherwise known as the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) of 2016.
Lear MoreTrivandrum airport gold smuggling case: RAW, NIA join probe.
Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday filed a report in a special CBI court on a gold smuggling episode in which a Customs Officer has been arrested among others, there came a new twist with the RAW and NIA beginning a probe as well. The National Investigation Agency and Research and Analysis Wing launched their respective probe after one of the arrested, a beautician with business in Dubai, was found to have alleged links with a Pakistani involved in gold smuggling. Even though it was the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) who effected the arrest of the carriers, the case is now being investigated by the CBI and there is said to be a criminal conspiracy involved. For the past six months, the DRI had been keeping a close tab on the airport. The CBI in its report has alleged that the key conspirator was Customs Superintendent V. Radhakrishnan, who has now been arrested. During April, there was an increased flow of gold. The DRI last month arrested a beautician along with a carrier who came with 25 kilograms of gold at the airport here.
Lear MoreHappy World Anti-Counterfeiting Day 2019!
With 70% of counterfeit goods reportedly sold online, and 68% of people now reported to have unintentionally bought fake goods online, it’s difficult to imagine how our counterfeit problem could get any worse.
White papers from the Union des Fabricants and co-published by the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection and Mark Monitor remind us that fake goods are not only putting us out of pocket, but they are placing us in a greater danger than may have initially been thought. The fakes we buy are funding serious criminal activity, including terrorism, modern slavery and other organised crimes, not to mention the immediate health and safety issues of fake pharmaceuticals and electricals.
What does this mean for your brand?
These studies serve to further underscore why it is not just important, but imperative that we tackle counterfeits in a meaningful way. One report notes that 85% of consumers believe that brands need to be doing more to protect customers from making counterfeit purchases online. Brands are less likely to be trusted – and therefore more likely to lose potential customers and sales – if the brand is not seen to be actively working to resolve any online counterfeiting issues.
Brand owners need to create an effective and sustained anti-counterfeiting strategy tailored to their brand, industry and consumer purchasing habits. A combination of the right IP protection, customs recordals, online content monitoring and an established enforcement/escalation strategy can prove a successful blueprint in combatting counterfeits.
A brand enforcement strategy that identifies types of issues and priorities is the key starting point. Undertaking manual and piecemeal enforcement activity (either physical or digital) prevents matters being prioritised properly and dealt with holistically, and is a drain on resources.
A number of software platform providers offer online content monitoring, enabling bulk enforcement across different mechanisms such as eBay and Twitter. These platforms are useful in reducing the level of noise around the brand, but these alone can simply create a whack-a-mole scenario of sellers being removed, only to pop up again via new credentials or with altered selling practices. What is required in addition to this is the continued collation and review of the intelligence generated. That can then be fed into an escalation policy which can be implemented by a brand and their legal advisors to address issues that are so heinous at the outset or recurrent to warrant more bespoke action such as investigations, litigation, or collaboration with law enforcement.
https://www.iamstobbs.com/opinion/happy-world-anti-counterfeiting-day-2019
Lear MoreAnti-Counterfeiting and Product Security Technologies Market 2019-2024: Advance Track & Trace, Alien Technology, Alp Vision Applied DNA Sciences, Atl Security Label Systems, Atlantic Zeiser
e Southeast Asia Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Security Technologies market size is $XX million USD in 2018 with XX CAGR from 2014 to 2018, and it is expected to reach $XX million USD by the end of 2024 with a CAGR of XX% from 2019 to 2024.
This report is an essential reference for who looks for detailed information on Southeast Asia Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Security Technologies market. The report covers data on Southeast Asia markets including historical and future trends for supply, market size, prices, trading, competition and value chain as well as Southeast Asia major vendors information. In addition to the data part, the report also provides overview of Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Security Technologies market, including classification, application, manufacturing technology, industry chain analysis and latest market dynamics. Finally, a customization report in order to meet user’s requirements is also available.
Lear More3 crore of foreign cigarettes 3 arrested
Customs officials have seized over 10 lakh cigarettes worth Rs 2 crore that was smuggled from Bangladesh and Myanmar to Bengluru. The cigarettes were stored in three godowns in the city market. A Benguluru resident has been taken into custody. A Ramana Reddy, additional commissioner, city customs Commissionerate, said a man who was trading foreign cigarettes was detained on June 8 and three godowns in the city market area were raided on June 28. More than 16 brands of international cigarettes worth Rs 2 crore were found there. These cigarettes were illegally sold in pubs, bars and other high-end outlets.
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