Four busts at IGI airport: Gold smuggling, now in fruit drink mixture
For the last two months, 30-year-old Sahansha had been desperately looking for an opportunity to return to his village in Rajasthan from Riyadh. He had landed in Abu Dhabi with high hopes, but had soon realised that he had been cheated on the pretext of a job.
Then he got an offer: He would get Rs 8,000 and a ticket to India, but would have to carry along a packet with a powdered fruit drink mixture. In reality, though, the packet contained 695 grams of gold — in the form of granules. Clueless, he landed in Delhi — only to be apprehended by Customs officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Tuesday.
The seizure is one of four cases at IGI airport in the past month of gold granules being found inside such packets. “Gold granules mixed with fruit drink powder are hard to detect. Smugglers mix them in a way that it’s impossible to spot it with the naked eye. But customs officials segregate the two powders using sieves of different sizes, and detect it in an X-ray scanner,” a senior official said.
Lear MoreCandlelight Campaign Against Counterfeits
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Students of Christ Nagar College participated in a candlelight congregation, organised by FICCI as part of a nation-wide awareness campaign to highlight the growing menace of illegal trade activities in the district.
More than 150 students and consumers with candles in their hand and banners stating ‘Buy Genuine Not Smuggled’ participated in congregation in the city. Fr Titto Varghese, principal, Christ Nagar College and Savio Mathew, head FICCI Kerala State Council felicitated the campaign.
IGP Crime Branch S Sreejith was the chief guest. He congratulated FICCI CASCADE for taking the steps to enrol the youth in the fight against illegal trade such as smuggled and counterfeit goods. Sreejith said the activities involving illegal curbs economic independence and one must pledge to not use fake products. He said the fight against smuggling is a necessity in the larger interest of the nation’s economy.
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Countering counterfeiting
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a bid to generate awareness about the growing menace of counterfeiting and smuggling, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is organising a workshop on ‘Combating smuggling, counterfeiting and piracy – an imperative to accelerate economic development’ on February 21 at 10 am at Hotel Vivanta by Taj.
Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar will inaugurate the programme. ‘’Counterfeiting and smuggling activities are highly pervasive across countries and sectors, representing a multi-billion-dollar industry globally that continues to grow and impact commerce and industry, government, economies and the society at large. According to recent estimates, by the year 2022, the value of counterfeit and pirated goods will be around $2.81 trillion. Hence, it is increasingly imperative to deliberate on this subject and find ways and means to mitigate this challenge,’’ FICCI said in a statement.
Lear MoreSeminar on Counterfeiting, Smuggling on Feb 21
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 19 (UNI) A seminar on ‘Combating Counterfeiting and Smuggling — An Imperative to Accelerate Economic Development’ will be held here on February 21.
The objective of the event is to outline the impact of counterfeiting and smuggling.
Senior Government officials of Industries, Commerce, Police and Customs departments will take part in the discussions during the seminar.
The event is organised by FICCI’s Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying Economy (CASCADE).
Kerala Agriculture Minister Adv. V. S. Sunil kumar, Food and Civil Supplies Minister P Thilothaman will grace the occasion.
http://www.uniindia.com/seminar-on-counterfeiting-smuggling-on-feb-21/states/news/1142917.html
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60,000 cigarettes, 30 kilos of rolling tobacco seized after car stopped in Derry
A 48-year-old man has been arrested, and approximately 60,000 cigarettes and more than 30 kilograms of hand rolling tobacco (HRT), seized by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) today in Derry.
The man was interviewed by HMRC officers on Friday 16 February, after a car was stopped by the PSNI in the the city area and searched. A quantity of cigarettes and HRT were discovered inside the car. HMRC officers also carried out a follow up search at a domestic premises in Newry and seized more tobacco products. The suspected illicit tobacco products are worth an estimated £33,000 in lost duty and taxes. Steve Tracey, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said:
“Tobacco fraudsters undercut legitimate retailers depriving the UK of money needed to fund our public services. “HMRC will continue to target the supply of illicit tobacco, which costs the UK around £2.5 billion a year.
Lear MoreUS : 43-Year-Old Chinese National Guilty Of Selling Fake Apple Devices Worth $1.1mn
A Chinese citizen, living in the United States was convicted of participating in an operation of counterfeit products from China that involved the sale of fake iPhones and iPads to the customers.
43-year-old Chinese national, Jianhua ‘Jeff Li, was pronounced guilty before US Court Judge Kevin McNulty, for trafficking counterfeit goods and labels and, smuggling goods into the United States on Friday.
The case has been underway since 2015 when Li was indicted and taken into custody. After inspecting into his bank transactions, it was found that Li received over $ 1.1 million from fake product sales. The amount of money Li’s partners and associates in the US or China received is not clear.
As per reports, between July 2009 – February 2014, Jianhua ‘Jeff Li, through his company “Dream Digitals” with his accomplices Andreina Becerra, Roberto Volpe, Rosario LaMarca and others smuggled more than 40,000 electronic devices and accessories into the USA. The smuggled iPhone and iPads were transferred with labels and packaging with fake Apple trademarks. Li will be sentenced on May 30.
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Woman jailed for smuggling 3m illicit cigarettes into UK
A London woman who smuggled three million illicit cigarettes into the UK using false identities has been jailed after an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
Xiou Yu Lin, 50, set up mailbox accounts in false names to receive packages, mainly from the Far East.
The parcels – from China, Hong Kong, Japan, India and the US – were wrongly declared as containing items such as ‘kids toys’ and ‘machinery parts’ to get through Customs and evade £904,865.73 in duty.
Southwark Crown Court heard Lin was involved in the scam between July 2011 and November 2016, illegally importing 3.2m cigarettes and 662.7kg of tobacco.
HMRC investigators caught Lin in Camden Town in November 2016 after she had picked up 6,000 Marlboro Gold cigarettes.
Lin, who admitted smuggling cigarettes and tobacco and several counts of using false documents, was sentenced to three years and four months in jail.
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SIA air steward arrested at Delhi Airport for smuggling gold
24, January 2018 l Today Online
SINGAPORE – A Singapore Airlines (SIA) cabin crew was arrested at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Monday (Jan 22) for allegedly smuggling gold.
The air steward, who was among the crew operating SIA flight SQ402 from Singapore to New Delhi, was detained by customs officials after they searched him and recovered about 1.05kg of gold worth 3.1 million rupees (S$64,000), said an Indian Express report on Wednesday.
According to a senior official, the crew member had worn the gold items, a chain and bangles, underneath his uniform.
Early investigations also revealed that the crew member had intended to hand the gold over to an agent at a prominent hotel in Delhi. In return, he would be paid S$500.
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/sia-air-steward-arrested-delhi-airport-smuggling-gold
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Large Number of Fake Korean Cosmetics Seized at Hong Kong Customs
A large number of fake South Korean cosmetic products is circulating in Chinese-speaking countries.
According to news outlets in Hong Kong, including Wenweipo, on January 2, Hong Kong Customs officers found 5,200 South Korean, Japanese and European knock-off cosmetics worth HK$670,000 (US$85,742 or 91.19 million won) for two days from December 20.
The fakes were mostly South Korean make-up and skincare products such as Amorepacific’s Sulwhasoo, Innisfree and Laneige. France’s Chanel counterfeit perfumes and Bioderma bogus products were also found.
Hong Kong Customs cracked down on fake cosmetic products two times in 2017. They seized 755 knock-off cosmetics with an estimated market value of about HK$100,000 (US$12,794 or 13.65 million won at the end of September last year. After the first seizure, 120 investigators were called in to an extensive raid and found counterfeit cosmetics storage facilities last month.
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NT$60 million worth of smuggled cigarettes seized in Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung Customs has seized 1.35 million packs of cigarettes worth NT$60 million (US$2 million) on the market that were being smuggled into the country as textiles.
Customs officials zeroed in on three containers that arrived in Taiwan from Vietnam and were to be re-exported to the Philippines, Kaohsiung Customs Director Chen Shan-Ju said Tuesday.
After tracking down their location in the port, customs officials inspected the containers and found they contained 1.35 million packs of duty-free, smuggled cigarettes, Chen said.
The containers arrived in Taiwan with documents identifying their contents as textiles, but they in fact contained cigarettes worth NT$60 million. The cigarettes have been seized for violation of the Customs Anti-smuggling Act and the Tobacco and Alcohol Administration Act, and police authorities are investigating the individuals involved.
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201801020011.aspx
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