Campaign to target illegal tobacco trade
Trade in illegal tobacco available at ‘pocket money prices’ is the target of a county-wide campaign. The East Sussex Tobacco Partnership is launching the campaign to highlight the dangers of illegal tobacco and target those involved in its supply. Illegal tobacco is available in various places in the community including the workplace, private homes, pubs, markets, car boot sales and on the street.
The UK Border Agency averages more than one million counterfeit cigarette seizures per day. Low costs of production and high levels of demand make illicit cigarettes one of the world’s most illegally trafficked goods.
http://www.ryeandbattleobserver.co.uk/news/local/campaign-to-target-illegal-tobacco-trade-1-6160031
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Ministry moves to tackle smuggling
HA NOI (VNS) — Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai on Tuesday urged the nation’s market watch forces to take more drastic measures to curb smuggling and other forms of trade fraud in the second half of this year.
Addressing a conference on Tuesday, Hai asked them to concentrate on six “hot” groups of goods that were usually smuggled or faked – fertiliser, fuel, liquefied gas, helmets, cigarettes and poultry.
He said that the ministry would improve the legal framework and relevant documents to facilitate the work of market watch forces.
Do Thanh Lam, deputy head of the ministry’s Market Watch Department, said that so far, the Government has issued 45 decrees on fines for violations involving the production, trade and transport of products including those that tend to be smuggled or counterfeited.
http://vietnamnews.vn/society/256961/ministry-moves-to-tackle-smuggling.html
Lear MoreSmuggling at the national level: Oil concern chief allegedly arrested
Igorr Zhilin, Head of the Belarusian State Group Company for Oil and Chemistry (Belnaftakhim), was arrested on July, 1 and placed in the pretrial detention centre, news media Charter97 reports with a reference to its own source. By the decree No 631 dated by June 30, 2014 Mr Zhilin was released from his position. The information has not been confirmed or denied officially yet. But there is a dash in the “Management personnel” section on the company’s official website.
Igor Zhilin, a citizen of Russia, was appointed to the position of the head of the concern on February 4, 2011. Earlier he headed JSC Hrodna Azot. It is rumoured that he took the position thanks to push given by the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky.
Lear MoreCounterfeit clothing dealer jailed
A TRADER found with more than £70,000 of fake clothing has been jailed for ten months. Ivan Genis, 58, of Hendon Wood Lane, Barnet, was jailed at Wood Green Crown Court last month after being found guilty of five charges of being a director of a firm looking to sell counterfeit goods. He was also ordered to pay costs of almost £18,000 to Haringey Council. The court heard how Genis sold the fake goods, including counterfeit Nike, Adidas and Ralph Lauren clothes, to retailers across the UK from his warehouse in White Hart Lane, Tottenham.
They then unwittingly sold the counterfeit clothing on to the public. When Haringey Council’s trading standards team raided the warehouse, as well as Genis’ Brands Plaza Trading Limited premises in Borehamwood, in May 2009 and July 2011, they seized thousands of t-shirts, polo shirts and tracksuit bottoms worth £73,000.
The council is now seeking to recover any profits Genis made from selling the knock-off goods, while the court ruled he must forfeit his stash of dodgy clothes.
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Vietnam’s Tobacco Problem
Campaigners are beginning to tackle smoking in one of the world’s most tobacco-friendly countries.
In a small street-side cafe deep within Hanoi’s labyrinthine Old Quarter, a group of middle-aged men sit drinking bitter iced tea, swapping stories, and smoking from a huge bamboo water pipe. Their attention is caught by a foreign tourist ordering a drink at a nearby table, and one of them beckons in broken English for him to join the group.
“You smoke, my friend?” he asks, pointing to the pipe. “It’s very good. Very strong. Makes you strong too.” Apologetic, the visitor refuses. “But you are in Vietnam,” the man insists, breaking into a broad gap-filled smile of yellowing teeth. “Men smoke here.”
http://thediplomat.com/2014/07/vietnams-tobacco-problem/
Lear MoreKimberley police confiscate illicit tobacco
Police in Kimberley in the Northern Cape have raided 30 businesses, confiscating illicit tobacco with a street value of R50 000. Police spokesperson Sergio Kock says the raids happened in De Beers, Colville, Greenpoint and Beaconsfield. He says fines were also issued to business owners for allegedly contravening the Tobacco Act as well as the Customs and Excise Act.
Kock says: “The illicit cigarettes are usually identified with the absence of the SA diamond stamp…and the cigarettes also have incorrect health warnings and the quit line number is usually also not available on the cigarettes packs.”
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Tackling cheap illegal tobacco roadshow comes to Swindon
Shoppers will be warned about the dangers of illegal tobacco and encouraged to report the issue, when a campaign roadshow rolls into Swindon town centre on Friday, 4th July. Illegal tobacco is known to make it easier for children to start smoking because it is sold at pocket money prices, meaning that young people could fall prey to the lethal habit which claims the life of every 1 in 2 smokers. Illegal tobacco is also known to make communities more attractive to criminals.
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Cigarette smuggling suspect pleads guilty
The No. 2 man in a multimillion-dollar cigarette smuggling operation based out of West Ocean City has pleaded guilty to corruption charges and now faces prison time in New York state.
Samer Ramadan, 40, pleaded guilty June 27 to the top charge against him of enterprise corruption, according to the New York Attorney General’s Office. In a statement in open court, he admitted his role in the operation run by his brother, prosecutors said, including stating that his brother ran the enterprise.
He now faces a prison sentence of two to six years, prosecutors said.
http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2014/06/30/cigarette-smuggling-ring/11779889/
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Operation smokes out illegal tobacco
TRADING standards seized more than £4,000 worth of illegal tobacco in a raid on shops around the town. Police joined officers from Trading Standards on Thursday in a joint operation to target two shops in Manchester Road following intelligence that they were supplying illegal tobacco.
Illegal tobacco refers to goods that have been smuggled, bootlegged, or counterfeited and any goods which have been manufactured overseas and smuggled into the UK, such as Jin Ling, Raquel, Palace, Manchester and Richman.
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11308115.Operation_smokes_out_illegal_tobacco/?ref=rss
Lear MoreHike in taxes on Tobacco will encourage smuggling
Reports about hike in duty on tobacco products may not persuade many to give up smoking because of high prices as it is one of the products which bears heavy burden of local and Central taxes, but will certainly be good news for those who smuggle international brands into India and manufacturers of counterfeit products as it would make their trade more attractive because of huge price difference between products of legitimate manufacturers and those who pay no taxes.
Smuggling of cigarettes has become a major security concern for many countries as outfits like Al-Qaida and Taliban’s are turning to illicit trade to finance their activities. According to U.S department of justice bureau alcohol, firearms and tobacco are some of the items which are used to fund the activities of terrorists. In some cases container loads of cigarettes have been intercepted by authorities.
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