Six cases of illegal smuggling investigated
TAY NINH (VNS) — Police in the southern province of TayNinh have launched inquiries into six cases of smuggling, trafficking prohibited goods and illegal transportation of currency across borders, with 11 suspects identified.Huynh Van Duc, director of the Customs Department, said in May that the smuggling activities in some border areas and other key areas had increased. Goods being smuggled into the country are beer, milk, wine and cigarettes, as well as Thailand sugar, motorcycles and wood.
http://vietnamnews.vn/society/271184/six-cases-of-illegal-smuggling-investigated.html
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Anti-counterfeit Blister Packs from RomacoNoack
Anti-counterfeiting technology is an extremely important issue for global pharmaceutical producers and packaging contractors. In an exclusive partnership with NANO 4 U, Romacohas developed an anti-counterfeit solution for blister packaging that is suitable for pharmaceutical products and meets the EU Falsified Medicine Directive 2011/62/EU. At the ACHEMA, Romaco will be introducing the RomacoNoack 960 blister line with the new technology for unique primary packaging identification.
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China’s counterfeiting crisis hurting Aus producers
THE threat of sophisticated counterfeiting of Australian products in China is exploding, with major exporters fearing damage to the nation’s clean, green reputation is inevitable. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, Senator Richard Colbeck, told the 2015 Agribusiness Outlook Australia conference that unsafe product being labelled as Australian would damage the country’s reputation. “It is a form of flattery for Australia – the quality is recognised for the product but it is also a threat (that could) quickly damage our brand,” Senator Colbeck said. “Counterfeiting in China is a real problem, one the Chinese know they need to deal with a thorough regulatory and enforcement framework. New laws introduced in China last year which aim to increase protection to trademark owners appear toothless, as widespread counterfeiting affecting Australian brands was discussed at the forum.
Lear MoreBotswana: Illicit Tobacco Trade Rife – Madigele
Tutume — Assistant Minister of Health, Dr Alfred Madigele, has urged Batswana to help in the fight against illegal trade of tobacco products. Speaking at the World NO Tobacco commemoration in Nata recently, Dr Madigele noted that some companies had been known to use loopholes in tobacco control laws to weaken governance systems and indulge in illegal trade of tobacco products. He indicated that that his ministry and other stakeholders such as Botswana Police Service and Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) were fighting illegal cross border importation of tobacco products.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201506020418.html
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How to Spot Counterfeit Beauty Products
The latest in beauty news has many a gal freaking out about what’s really lurking in her products. A new report by the City of London Police urges consumers to think twice before buying beauty items online, explaining that there’s been a rise in fake makeup products being sold online.
While it’s bad enough that you might think you’re buying a legit brand name item only to have received a knock-off, the situation is much worse: It turns out that some of these counterfeit products, from mascara to perfume, have been laced with scary substances like arsenic and lead.
http://stylecaster.com/beauty-high/how-to-spot-counterfeit-beauty-products/
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Punitive taxation, extreme tobacco control regulations fuel growth in illegal cigarette trade in India
Excise duty on legal cigarette industry has doubled in the last four years and has impacted the legal industry as well as provided a huge arbitrage opportunity to illegal operatorsThe combined effect of high and discriminatory central and state level taxation has impacted the legal cigarette industry, sub-optimised government’s revenue collection and provided a huge fillip to the illegal cigarette trade in the country.
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Ratification of WHO protocol a must to stop illicit tobacco trade
Every tenth cigarette consumed globally is part of the illicit tobacco trade. While the smuggling of contraband tobacco products across national borders has always been profitable, the illegal tobacco trade is now the trademark for organised crime networks, which may also be involved in drugs, human and arms trafficking, as well as terrorism. Cigarettes are becoming a preferred item to smuggle because it’s easy and unlike smuggling narcotics, punishment for smuggling tobacco is less severe. The tobacco industry claims that high taxes drive smuggling. It also lobbies governments to keep tobacco taxes low. However, experience from many countries shows that there is no direct correlation between high taxes and smuggling.
Lear MoreTaking the fight to cigarette smugglers
The financial impact of contraband and counterfeit cigarettes due to unpaid customs duties as well as unpaid taxes such as value added taxes and excise duties is immense: 10 billion EUR, some figures indicate up to 12.5 billion EUR that are lost to national and EU budgets each year. Smuggling does not only concern counterfeit but also genuine cigarettes that are smuggled into the European Union (EU). A single container of smuggled cigarettes causes an average loss of customs duty and value added tax of about 1.5 million EUR. The financial damage for countries with higher taxes on tobacco products such as the United Kingdom is even more severe.
http://www.neurope.eu/blog/taking-the-fight-to-cigarette-smugglers/
Lear MoreCigarette Smuggling Is Everyone’s Business
At the border checkpoint between the Spanish town La Linea de la Concepcion and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar where they will buy tax-free cigarettes for just €2.20 a pack. No one is interested in buying the well-known brands. They prefer the so-called illicit whites – the brand name cigarettes from an unknown origin. They will buy cartons of these illicit whites. Before they cross the border back into Spain, they will empty out the cartons and hide the cigarette packs on their body. Those who manage to return to the Spanish side of the border, head to the coffee kiosks at a small square nearby. There, they take out the packs and hand them over to the men working in the smuggling chain. The cigarette packs are destined to travel safely all over Spain.Persons who are unemployed are also engaged in this.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/cigarette-smuggling-is-everyones-business/
Lear MoreTobacco smuggling: the canary in the cal mine of organised crime
In the year 2013, according to the Tobacco industry’s figures ,58.6 billion of illicit cigarettes were that means these huge majority of these cigarettes is smuggled. Only 5.8% of consumed illicit cigarettes are counterfeit, the rest is contraband (including the so called “Illicit Whites”). On top of the consumed illicit cigarettes, around 4 billion of illicit cigarettes are seized each year. The consumed illicit cigarettes make up for around 10.5% of overall consumption in the EU, which is at around 560 billion cigarettes per year. In the European Union, every year around 12.9 billion Euros of turnover with illicit cigarettes. Usually, tobacco manufacturers have high profit margins at around 40% of turnover (or higher). Hence, the European cigarette smokers (conservatively estimated) finance smugglers and counterfeiters of cigarettes with around 5 billion Euros each year.
http://www.neurope.eu/blog/tobacco-smuggling-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine-of-organized-crime/
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