Author: adminficci

Taxman impounds Rwf590m worth of smuggled products.

Smuggled products worth Rwf590 million were impounded in the 2017/18 fiscal year, Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) has said.

According to Faustin Niyigaba, the Acting Deputy Commissioner for Revenue Investigation and Enforcement department at RRA, the smuggled products included food, beverages, second hand clothes and illegal drugs among others.

He was speaking after RRA signed an agreement with Gicumbi district and three youth cooperatives to fight smuggling and drug dealing at the Rwanda-Uganda borders in the Northern Province.

The cooperatives comprise of some former drug dealers and smugglers.

They include Tujyembere Rubyiruko cooperative from Kaniga sector, Imbere Heze of Cyumba sector as well as Duterimbere Rubyiruko of Rushaki sector.

https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/taxman-impounds-rwf590m-worth-smuggled-products

Gold seizures double, raise fears of rise in smuggling.

Gold smuggling seems to be on the rise as seizures by the Customs Department has doubled in one year.

According to data compiled by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), the total quantity of gold seized by the Customs in 2017-18 was 3,223 kg valued at ₹974 crore, an increase of 103 per cent from 1,422 kg valued at ₹472 crore seized in 2016-17.

Unofficial estimates suggest that seizure forms any thing between 5 and 10 per cent of the total illegal trade. Considering this, smuggling of gold could be up to 30 tonnes during the last fiscal with a value of over ₹9,000 crore. The agency is taking all steps to check innovative ways of smuggling.

According to the publication ‘Smuggling in India Report 2017-18’ by DRI, a large part of the domestic gold market is being served by the illicit smuggling of gold. Majority of seizures made by the DRI has been those imported through India’s land borders in cities such as Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi, which are high consumption centres of smuggled gold.

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/gold-seizures-double-raise-fears-of-rise-in-smuggling/article25681826.ece

Three men suspected of smuggling 870,000 contraband cigarettes granted bail.

Three men suspected of smuggling some 870,000 contraband cigarettes, who were arrested by the police in the Fekruna area last month, have been granted bail.

James Azzopardi and James Spiteri both from Qormi and Redeemer Camilleri from Marsa stand accused of the importation and possession of smuggled contraband cigarettes, as well as tax and duty evasion.

Azzopardi alone is accused of possessing an unregistered boat and of breaching bail conditions imposed on him last July.

This afternoon, Inspector Mark Mercieca from the Drug Squad testified about the events leading up to the arrests on November 8 when police, acting on a tip-off, had started covert surveillance of a boat which Azzopardi kept at a private compound at Hal Farrug.

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2018-12-06/local-news/Three-men-suspected-of-smuggling-870-000-contraband-cigarettes-granted-bail-6736200476

$1.7 Million in Counterfeit Nike Sneakers Seized en Route to California.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Port of Newark and New York seized more than 9,000 pairs of counterfeit Nike sneakers on their way to California. The shoes, if authentic, would have a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $1,695,600.

The shipment was intercepted in September en route to an address in Chino, Calif., from Dongguan City, China, and CBP says that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement are continuing to investigate the case.

It won’t be the first time the agency is looking into Nike counterfeiters: In August, it charged five Queens, N.Y., residents with conspiring to traffic in more than $70 million worth of Air Jordans, charges that have a maximum prison sentence of 20 years each.

https://footwearnews.com/2018/focus/athletic-outdoor/nike-counterfeit-sneakers-seized-1202714529/

India’s coastal security: An assessment

Coastal preparedness is better than earlier — but the overall picture remains less than satisfactory. While the state of inter-agency coordination has improved, state governments continue to be indifferent to needs of coastal security, and the state-police still reluctant to shoulder responsibility.

The tenth anniversary of 26/11 is an apt occasion to review the state of India’s coastal security preparedness. In the aftermath of the attacks on Mumbai, the government made concerted efforts to improve coastal security infrastructure and law enforcement. In a radical overhaul of the coastal defence apparatus, a three-tier security grid was installed with the Indian Navy, the coast guard, and the marine police jointly patrolling India’s near-seas. An existing Coastal Security Scheme (originally instituted in 2005) was accelerated, with greater fund allocations for coastal infrastructure, including police stations and radar stations along India’s coastline. The enterprise included measures to improve ‘surveillance and domain awareness,’ through the installation of radar stations and identification systems), and the enhancement of coordination through Joint Operation Centres (JOCs).

A decade later, coastal preparedness is better than earlier, but the overall picture remains less than satisfactory. While the state of inter-agency coordination has improved, state governments continue to be indifferent to needs of coastal security, and the state-police still reluctant to shoulder responsibility. The real problem, observers point out, are systemic flaws in the policing apparatus. From low numbers of marine police stations, to the underutilisation of patrol boats for coastal tasks, absence of shore-based infrastructure, through to manpower shortages and unspent funds, coastal managers are yet to resolve many structural issues plaguing the system.

Regrettably, the proposal to set up an apex coastal authority remains frozen. India’s policymakers recognise the need for a full-time manager to coordinate the large number of agencies (over 15) in the coastal security space. Officials say that the National Committee for Strengthening Maritime and Coastal Security, which presently coordinates joint activities, is at best an ad hoc arrangement. Yet, parliament has not been able to clear the coastal security bill that would establish a National Maritime Authority (NMA).

https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/indias-coastal-security-an-assessment-45692/

Does Counterfeit Fashion Fund Terrorism?

According to fashion writers and historians, every woman’s wardrobe should contain that versatile “little black dress” (LBD). The origins of the phrase and the simple, yet elegant, black cocktail dress predate that worn by Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in the iconic 1960s film Breakfast at Tiffany’s and stretch back in the annals of time to the designs of Coco Chanel and Jean Patou in the 1920s.

As a staple fashion icon, it can be worn with everything to go to anywhere-from the dressy to the dress down. But it can also mean “dressed to kill,” if the LBD in question is a fake? If the sale of such counterfeit fashion was funding another kind of black icon—the black flag of ISIS, or so-called Islamic State.

Would every woman still covet one if the black were tinged red with the blood of innocent civilians or martyred jihadists on the streets of Europe? Would the dress still have its lure and appeal?

There has long been suspicion that counterfeit fashion goods and their sale in the United States and Europe raise millions for what have become cash-rich terrorist causes across the Middle East. The recently recaptured cities of Mosul and Raqqa have given up their grisly secrets of torture and murder in the name of a cause that ruled its so-called “caliphates” with fear and brutal repression and have been bank-rolled in part through the sale of counterfeit fashion—little black numbers, handbags, fake designer sneakers, DVDs, car parts, alcohol, and tobacco.

Recent research converts the anecdotal into the factual for the first time as undercover journalists and researchers have followed the murderous and lucrative trail of the criminal gangs right to the streets of Europe—Paris, Barcelona, and other major cities—to the markets and curbsides where feckless buyers of fake goods hand over their cash.

They, for their part, have no idea—or simply don’t care—that their purchases are putting weapons in the hands of the jihadists who will then turn them on innocent consumers in those same cities where a shopping spree becomes a murderous spree.

https://losspreventionmedia.com/does-counterfeit-fashion-fund-terrorism/