While customs officials are apprehensive that they will have to be on their toes, bullion traders are unhappy that high duty will push up attempts to smuggle in gold by evading taxes and will lead to loss of jobs for local goldsmiths.Jewellers say smugglers, couriers and middleman can make as much as Rs 1,800 for every 10g of gold imported (6% of Rs 30,000).“With imports of 50kg, the margins can be as high as Rs 1 crore,” said a jeweller who did not want to be named. Jewellers say the government has seized close to 900kg of unaccounted gold in the last year.Prithviraj Kothari, managing director, RiddiSiddhi Bullions, said, “It will have a big impact on the bullion sector.The increase comes to approximately Rs 60,000 per kg of gold. There will be a difference of 7% between international and domestic prices of the yellow metal. This may lead to rise in malicious activities to import gold and jewellery. In turn, it will lead to an increase in unemployment among skilled artisans — around two million people depend on this sector for their livelihood.”Consumers will have to pay Rs 60 more per gram from Tuesday morning. “The wedding season has just begun and the hike will affect purchases,” said N Ananthapadmanabhan, regional chairman, All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation.Jewellers also anticipate under-reporting of business. “Many transactions will take place outside the books and such cash transactions without bills will not reflect in the overall turnover of the retailer,” he said. Gold prices in Chennai closed at Rs 30,715 (10g, 24 carat) on Monday.
Zambia: Ban On Counterfeit Phones Coming
ZAMBIA is in the process of banning the use and trade in all counterfeit and uncertified mobile phones in the country this year in an effort to curb security threats and halt the illegal trade in these gadgets.
The Zambia Information Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) said with the planned introduction of International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) registration, the process of banning counterfeit phones in Zambia was expected to start soon.
In a statement, ZICTA said it was expected that counterfeit mobile phones with fake IMEIs would be eliminated from the Zambian market. This will be done by blocking such phones from accessing Mobile networks in Zambia. .“Once the IMEI registration is implemented, these counterfeit phones will not be able to work on any network in this country,” ZICTA said.Introduction of IMEI registration would be announced to the general public in due course and this expected to in turn, wipe out the counterfeit phones with fake IMEI as they would be blocked from all networks in Zambia.
ZICTA has assured members of the public that they would be given adequate notice for this registration exercise.“The list of effects is endless but most prominent is the compromise on the quality of service these phones cause. Security, health, environmental threats, and compromise on standards, are some of the perceived effects of counterfeit phones on humans and markets. It is in this regard that ZICTA is working closely with relevant organisations such as the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS) to curb both the importation and use of these products in Zambia,” ZICTA said.
In accordance with the ICT Act number 15 of 2009, ZICTA is conferred with the responsibility to approve all equipment used in the provision of electronic communication, mobile phones inclusive.ZICTA would work closely with ZABS to ensure that ICT equipment such as mobile phones used in Zambia, were of a specified standard.ZICTA to ensure that the ban of counterfeit and uncertified mobile phones in Zambia is successfully implemented, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ZABS and ZRA to enhance collaboration.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201301281070.html
Lear MoreQuartet held for fake medical camp
Police busted a fake medical camp and arrested four posing as medical practitioners following a complaint on Sunday.
Sources said, the team of four, posing as medical practitioners, conducted a medical screening camp at Alangudi on Sunday. A day prior to the camp, the team publicised the event in the neighbourhood and announced that screening would be carried out on various ailments including Osteoporosis with latest equipment for a nominal fee.
On Sunday, hundreds of villagers gathered at the camp. Tests were conducted on the villagers and they were told to pay Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 for medicines manufactured by an unknown pharmaceutical company.
The villagers asked the medical team for their postal address for further communication which the team denied.An altercation ensued over the issue between the public and the medical team.On information, a police team of Alangudi rushed to the spot and made enquiry with medical team. Initial inquiry revealed that the members of the medical team are not academically qualified.
The fake medical team returned the amount which was collected from the public after the police intervened. Later, police took Kannan of Chennai, Ongaranathan and two assistants of the team to the police station for further enquiry. The investigation lasted till evening on Sunday.Tension prevailed in the area among the public after the police arrested the four member gang.
Lear MoreCounterfeit Bearings in Shanghai; a Growing Problem, (Tokyo)
Customers in China are suffering from the increasing number of counterfeit Japanese bearing introduced in the country. NACHI-Fujikoshi (NACHI) working in cooperation with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and their activities to safeguard the intellectual property of Japanese firms, conducted research in the Chinese bearing market regarding the distribution of counterfeit products sold in Shanghai. NACHI is an active member in the intellectual property protection activities of JETRO and is committed to the eradication of counterfeit bearings in China.
Recently a prominent market has developed throughout Shanghai for counterfeit bearings and field research was conducted by JETRO to assess the extent of the practice. According to the survey, 29 stores, in a population of 40 stores investigated, sold counterfeit bearings. In 28 of the stores there was a mixture of genuine and counterfeit products sold. Two shops selling genuine products over the counter were well aware of the channels of supply of forged bearings. It is estimated that two-thirds of all shops in Shanghai were involved in selling counterfeit goods.
The research uncovered the existence of a complicated network of companies working together to manufacture, pack, transport and export the counterfeit products. In a specific example, a sale from a shop in Shanghai placed an order to a company in Shandong that acted as the coordinator. This company sent a production order for non-branded bearings to a company in Zhejiang province which made and shipped the bearings to a Shandong company for marking and labeling. The bearings returned to Zhejiang where they were place in forged packaging to resemble the genuine article and shipped to the end customer. Delivery for this complicated procedure was surprisingly fast.
The report called for more detailed research and understanding of the supply chain and the companies involved. Cooperation, relationship building and strengthening of law enforcement agency activities across multiple provincial governments is needed in order to crackdown and stop the high degree of counterfeit practices in the region and to ensure customers receive genuine products. NACHI will continue to work with JETRO and the World Bearing Association (WBA) in this initiative.
Piracy vendors may face assets seizure
Vendors who sell falsely labelled counterfeit products valued at more than 500,000 baht could face the seizure of their personal assets in the foreseeable future, the Commerce Ministry warned on Monday.Deputy Commerce Minister Nattawut Saikuar saidthis was being considered as part of the ministry’s commitment this year to tighten its efforts to tackle intellectual property violations.
An amendment bill to theAnti-Money Laundering Act 1999, which makes intellectual property thefta predicate offence, has already been passed by parliament and is awaiting royal appoval, he said.It will becomeeffective immediately when it is published in the Royal Gazette.According to Mr Nattawut, the ministry will laterpropose criteria forpenalties relating to intellectual property violations which would include asset or property confiscation.A predicate offence means any criminal offence that generates proceeds.The ministry would try its best to track downthe prime offenders, he added.“We’re ready to use the new legislation to confiscate the assets of anybody found to have over 500,000 baht worth of pirated or counterfeit products,” he said. According to the ministry, there were 8,400 IP infringement cases last year, 50 of which were valued at over 500,000 baht, mainly involvingbrand-name products.According to Mr Natthawut, as part of the action plans to tackle IP infringement, the Intellectual Property Department plans to call a meeting next week with owners of rental space both at department stores and government buildings as well as internet service providers, asking them for cooperation to help tackle IP violations.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/333046/pirated-goods-vendors-may-face-asset-seizure
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How cigarette smuggling fuels Africa’s Islamist violence
Contrabrand tobacco is a $1bn trade in north Africa, run by extremists including Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who masterminded the attack on the Algerian gas plant. The trade is highly profitable – and very low risk, Cigarette sellers waiting for customers at a street stall in Benghazi, Libya. Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/AP. For many years Mokhtar Belmokhtar was little more than a footnote in the intelligence reports analysing the increasingly muscular presence of Islamist groups in SaharanAfrica.The man whoseal-Qaida-inspired Signed in Blood Battalion led the attack on the In Amenas gas plant inAlgeria, in which at least 38 people were killed, was considered a relatively unimportant figure in the political ecosystem of the vast region. But Belmokhtar, who fought for the mujahideen in Afghanistan and the Islamist GIA in the Algerian civil war before becoming a commander in the Mali-based al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was ambitious.In 2003 he masterminded the kidnapping of 32 European tourists whom he successfully ransomed. The money gave him the seed capital he needed to develop a sophisticated trading business throughout Saharan Africa, along the ancient 2,000-mile salt route used by the Tuareg tribesmen to transport goods from the continent’s west coast through to Timbuktu in Mali, then on to Niger before arriving in the Algerian south, gateway to the Mediterranean.
But while the Tuareg made their money in trading salt, gold and silk, Belmokhtar, who secured close links with the tribesmen through marriages to the daughters of several of their most prominent families, made a fortune through a different commodity: smuggled cigarettes. Such was the volume of his trade that he earned himself the sobriquet “Mr Marlboro”.”He was not an important figure in AQIM, he was quite different from al-Qaida and Bin Laden,” said Morten Bøås, a senior research fellow at Oslo University and editor ofAfrican Guerrillas: Raging Against the Machine. “He is generally known as one of the more pragmatic figures, more interested in filling his own pockets than fighting jihad.”The key role cigarettes play in facilitating terrorism has been inexplicably ignored. But it has become of urgent interest to western intelligence agencies as they seek to check al-Qaida’s diverse factions operating across the Saharan region.
Indeed, after interviewing numerous agents and experts in the field, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has concluded that “cigarette smuggling has provided the bulk of financing for AQIM”. AQIM’s affiliates include Ansar al-Sharia, an offshoot blamed for the killing of the American ambassador, Chris Stevens, in Benghazi, Libya, last year, and was thought to be behind threats last week that prompted the Foreign Office to urge Britons to leave the city.The total value of the illicit tobacco trade in north Africa is thought to exceed $1bn (£632m). The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that Africans smoke 400bn cigarettes a year, of which 60bn are bought on the black market.However, five countries – Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia – smoke 44% of Africa’s cigarettes, and their black markets are significantly larger. More than three-quarters of all cigarettes smoked in Libya, for example, are illicit.Controlling the flow of contraband into these counties has triggered a turf war as Belmokhtar and other AQIM factions compete with each other, as well as with Tuareg tribes and corrupt army and government officials, in an attempt to “own” the trade. Some of the cigarettes transported across Saharan Africa are fakes produced in China and Vietnam. But most are genuine branded product, sourced through the Middle East and shipped through a multitude of countries via a Byzantine network of middle-men and companies, many in offshore tax havens.The cigarettes often enter west Africa through Ghana, Benin and Togo. A second route is via Guinea, where the supply, according to UNODC, vastly exceeds the country’s demand. The cigarettes are then moved to Mali by road or by boat on the Niger river, where there is little risk of detection. A third distribution hub – for Senegal, Morocco and Algeria – is provided by Mauritania.In each case, Mr Marlboro and AQIM clean up, either by charging a “tax” for the safe passage of the cigarettes along the salt route, or facilitating their transport, using 4x4s, trucks, motorcycles and even bicycles.Often the smuggled products are not a premium western brand, such as Marlboro, but one of the cheaper, less prestigious marques that the tobacco giants are keen to introduce to developing nations as a way of gaining a foothold in their markets.Inevitably, the endemic smuggling of cigarettes in such countries has raised questions about the role played by big tobacco, and in particular the extent to which it should be made responsible for distribution routes being used to fill the coffers of some of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the world.Internal company memos show that in the 1980s British American Tobacco in Africa used a Liechtenstein-based company, Sorepex, as a key distributor. BAT documents reveal that the company saw Sorepex as a “gravy train” and a way of providing “cover, albeit increasingly flimsy, for BAT in some fairly shady business”. The company insists that it condemns all forms of smuggling.In 2002, RJ Reynolds, owner of the Winston brand, was accused by the EU of selling its products in Iraq in breach of embargoes. The cigarettes were allegedly smuggled into the country by the PKK (Kurdish Workers’ party), named by the American government as a terrorist group. Documents allegedly revealed that the cigarettes were transported from the US and shipped to Spain and then to Cyprus and Turkey before arriving in Iraq. The case is currently before a federal appeal court in the US.More recently, Japan Tobacco confirmed last year that it is being investigated by the EU amid claims it broke sanctions by shipping cigarettes to a firm linked to the Syrian regime. The company has denied any wrongdoing.Experts say that the profits provided by cigarette smuggling fuel other criminal activities, including drug, oil andhuman trafficking, activities which often use the same distribution networks. But cigarettes remain the most profitable and least risky form of contraband. As Louise Shelley, a crime expert at Washington’s George Mason university, told the ICIJ: “No one thinks that cigarette smuggling is too serious, so law enforcement agencies don’t spend resources to go after it.”This helps explain why terrorist groups exploit the illicit trade. According to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the IRA made as much as $100m between 1999 and 2004 by smuggling cigarettes into Northern Ireland. Hezbollah ran a successful smuggling operation in the US, shipping cigarettes from low-tax North Carolina to higher- tax Michigan.”Tobacco smuggling is lucrative and widespread,” said Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the charity Action on Smoking and Health. “It helps to fundglobal terrorismand conflict, encourages corruption and remains a source of funds for some of the most repressive regimes in the world.”Intelligence experts told theObserverthat pushing illicit cigarettes into north Africa was at the “low end” of cigarette smuggling. The real money, they said, comes from shipping big-brand products back into Europe via Greece, Spain or sometimes Italy. So far, this is believed to be a small but growing market for the smugglers.While there is no suggestion that the tobacco giants are actively working with terrorist groups, monitoring where their products end up is extremely difficult. The companies’ use of well-connected middlemen makes tracing their cigarettes almost impossible. Documents shared with theObserverby intelligence experts show how one middleman, who regularly buys product from a major tobacco company, has a complex operation involving offices, warehouses and bank accounts in Cyprus, Brussels, Dubai, Malaysia, Egypt, Israel, Uruguay, Panama and Singapore that allows him to move cigarettes around the world without being traced.”Those providing ‘protection’ along the routes – often customs officers or security services, but in some instances ‘terrorists’ – make good money for little or no work,” said one intelligence expert who has worked in counter-smuggling operations. “What’s best for them is that the trade is either in US dollars or euros. It’s hard currency into clean accounts which they can then use at their leisure to buy whatever they need.”Experts want countries to ratify the international treaty on the illicit trade in tobacco that would force cigarette companies to monitor and trace the distribution of their products while conducting due diligence on their customers.”The only way you can effectively police this is if the manufacturers accept legal responsibility for their products all along the chain of supply – that will force them to deal with reputable agents,” said Eric LeGresley, a Canadian lawyer who has studied tobacco companies.Ironically, Belmokhtar may have been too successful at smuggling cigarettes. It is rumoured that late last year he was forced out of AQIM and his base in Mali after the organisation’s leaders questioned his commitment to their cause. Mr Marlboro, they suggested, was more interested in money than ideals.The slaughter in the Sahara may have been Belmokhtar’s grotesque attempt to prove them wrong, something that has huge consequences for his smuggling operations.”His days as a smuggler are over,” Bøås predicted. “No bandits or traders will want to be within a kilometre of him now. They don’t want to be targeted by American drones.”But, given the money at stake, there will be no shortage of others ready to take his place.
Tobacco and Terrorism
The TalibanAcross the tribal belt of Pakistan, Taliban militias collect money from cigarette smugglers in exchange for allowing counterfeit Marlboro and cheap local brands into Afghanistan and China. Cigarettes have become an increasingly important source of financing for the groups, second only to the heroin trade, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.
The PKKCharges a fee for every container of cigarettes allowed to pass through its territory. Controlled the flow of contraband cigarettes into Iraq during the 1990s; now controls the flood of counterfeit cigarettes out of the same country.
FarcThe world’s largest supplier of cocaine often uses its well established drug smuggling routes to move American cigarettes according to evidence given to the US Senate.
The CNDPIn 2008, the UN claimed that The Congres National Pour la Defense du Peuple, a Tutsi-backed rebel group accused of atrocities, was being funded by Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa, a tobacco tycoon who pleaded guilty to cigarette tax evasion charges in South Africa.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/27/cigarette-smuggling-mokhtar-belmokhtar-terrorism
Lear MoreMobile Phone Counterfeiting Blamed on Weak Govt Regulations
Mobile phone manufacturer, Tecno Telecoms has traced the proliferation of counterfeit mobile phones in the Nigerian market, to weak government regulations in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.Deputy General Manager of Tecno Telecoms, manufacturer of Tecno brand of mobile phones, Mr. Chidi Okonwo, who gave the information in Lagos, told THIS DAY that there were a lot of counterfeit brands of mobile phones in the Nigerian market, noting that unless government strengthened its regulatory policies, the situation would continue un addressed.According to Okonkwo, “Government policy on regulations is weak and because of these people took undue advantage of government to do all manner of things in a bid to smuggle unlicensed mobile phones through unauthorised channels into the Nigerian market. The laws are there but there are no strict regulations on compliance.” Government, he added, needed to strengthen its regulatory policies in order to address the challenge that was adversely affecting mobile phone business in the country.
He believed that if there was a strict regulation, people would be discouraged from indulging in phone counterfeiting business.Sales Manager, West Africa, for ITEL brand of phones, Mr. Shyamol Saho, who confirmed the influx of counterfeit mobile phones in the Nigerian market, also told THISDAY that the ITEL brand suffered counterfeit products in 2012, when two of its products were faked and sold in the Nigerian market.He warned dealers that were involved in such business to desist from it, promising that ITEL would not compromise on any of its products.Mobile phone manufacturers are currently facing challenges with counterfeit mobile phones that are making huge sales in the Nigerian market.Blaming phone dealers for the situation, Okonwo said: “The reason for this is because most re sellers are desperate to make profits and in the process, they smuggle in fake products into the market from unauthorised distributors.Speaking on the effects of counterfeiting in the mobile phone business, Okonwo said: “It comes with lots of pains on the part of the original phone manufacturers and the phone buyers themselves.”
According to him, “phone manufacturers lose money in the process because their products were faked and people would unknowingly patronise fake products, thus making the manufacturers to loose market margins to counterfeiters.“Again, the innocent buys are short-changed because it is difficult to differentiate counterfeit phones from original phones by mere facial looks.”
“The issue is that counterfeits are substandard phones that do not last and do not perform at maximum level of efficiency. The buyers will not get value for their money and the original manufacturers would have lost sales in the process,” Okonwo added.He further explained that the situation would bring conflict on brand perception, because the customers may begin to feel that a particular brand is no longer as good as it used to be, and then distant themselves from the brand not knowing that what they have is counterfeit and not the original product of the brand manufacturer.He called for consumer education in order to create awareness on the part of consumes.“If there is a strong enlightenment programme from government and the manufacturers, consumers will begin to understand the difference between fake and original product. Then those customers that deliberately prefer to buy counterfeit phones because they appear cheaper, will begin to understand the need to buy original phones, instead of counterfeit.”He suggested the creation of various communication channels for dissemination of information to customers on where to buy genuine phones and how to identify genuine phones from fake ones.
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Tobacco Smuggling: Bill To Recover 80% Of Revenue Losses
The Government onWednesday estimated that it will recover 80 per cent, or $20 million, of the revenues it loses annually to tobacco smuggling via its Excise Stamp initiative, and disclosed it was looking at similar measures to combat illegal alcohol imports.Michael Halkitis, minister of state for finance, revealing that the Government lost $25 million per year in revenues to illegal tobacco (cigarette and cigar) imports, told the House of Assembly that the new requirements might also deter the smuggling of other contraband into the Bahamas.Kicking off debate on the long-awaited Excise Stamp (Tobacco Products) Control Bill, which was first flagged in the 2012-2013 Budget last May, Mr Halkitis said all tobacco-related imports, or products manufactured locally, would now be affixed with a Stamp to confirm due Excise Taxes had been paid.This would enable Ministry of Finance personnel, or other enforcement inspectors, to enter stores and determine instantly whether taxes had been paid.If tobacco products did not bear the Excise Stamp, vendors would be subject to further investigation and exposed to potential sanctions/penalties.“It has been estimated that $25 million per year in Excise Tax revenue was being lost to smuggling,” Mr Halkitis said. “That is the estimate of what was being lost to the authorities.“It is estimated by the experts that, let’s say $25 million is a conservative number, with effective implementation of the Excise Stamp that 80 per cent [of this sum] can be collected. That is, in this case, $20 million.“If the estimates are correct, and we effectively implement this Act, we’ll be looking at an extra $20 million amount into the Public Treasury. We are hopeful that is the case.”While some might consider $20 million to be a relative ‘drop in the bucket’ when set alongside the Government’s projected $550 million deficit for the 2012-2013 fiscal year, every little helps for a cash-strapped Treasury, and an administration that continued to be hard-pressed to meet all its bills.Meanwhile, Mr Halkitis said the Government was looking at “introducing legislation to reduce the smuggling of alcohol” products, chiefly beer, into the Bahamas.He suggested that the Government was looking at something similar to the Excise Stamps it plans to affix to all tobacco products, adding that it had been estimated that the Government was also losing “millions of dollars” to beer/alcohol smuggling.No data was provided on the level of alcohol smuggling, although Commonwealth Brewery’s initial public offering (IPO) document from May 2011 placed the ‘grey market’ and parallel imports as having a 15-20 per cent share of the total Bahamian market.Elsewhere, Mr Halkitis said the Government also aimed to crack down on smuggling/tax evasion that was facilitated by inter-island shipping.“We are also advised that there is a problem with the importation of goods into the Family Islands, and having them shipped into New Providence,” he added. “We are increasing our surveillance activities, and are looking at reporting those type of shipments to eliminate that loss.”Back on the tobacco angle, Mr Halkitis said the Bill fitted in with the Government’s strategy of improving revenue administration and collection, closing loopholes rather than increasing taxes or introducing new ones.“The cost of operating government continues to rise, so we must find new avenues, new revenue streams,” Mr Halkitis said.“It involves not imposing new taxes on the public, but improving the measures we have in place already to increase the flow of money into the Treasury. The demands on the Public Treasury continue to increase.”The Minister added that the Government was continuing to face pressure from public sector workers, and their trade unions, for wage and benefit increases despite the fiscal position.And the recession had also increased the burden on the public education and healthcare systems, as children were pulled out of private schools and health insurance either dropped or lost with unemployment.
#“We do not believe the solution is the imposition of new taxes,” Mr Halkitis said, “If you impose new taxes in recessionary times that might exacerbate the situation.”He added that, given “the structure of the economy”, the Government had “very little wiggle room” to make serious spending cuts. Achieving these would require public sector lay-offs and/or reduced benefits.Mr Halkitis also took a swipe at the former Ingraham administration, saying its response to the recession was “less than optimal”, with the national debt reaching levels “where there is serious concern”.Ryan Pinder, minister of financial services, in his contribution to the House debate said tobacco products – given that they are seen as socially harmful and detrimental to health – attract a 220 per cent Excise Tax rate.He added that exports, vital to companies such as Graycliff, which exports 70 per cent of its tobacco products, were not subject to Excise Taxes.Mr Halkitis said tobacco importers and manufacturers had agreed the Bill was “the way forward, is doable and agreeable to all stakeholders”.Under its requirements, all importers and manufacturers are required to register with the Ministry of Finance. To obtain registration, they must be up-to-date on Business Licence and National Insurance Board (NIB) payments.The diplomatic community and persons importing tobacco for their own use will be exempt from the Excise Stamp and registration requirements.To minimise supply chain disruptions and delays, Mr Halkitis said major Bahamian importers could pay their Excise Tax in advance, purchase the Stamps and send them to the manufacturer to be affixed at source.The Stamps’ design will be approved by the Ministry of Finance, which will be able to track them electronically to confirm the date tobacco products were imported, and when the tax was paid.No tobacco manufacturing equipment will be allowed into the Bahamas unless it is imported by a registered tobacco producer/manufacturer.
http://www.tribune242.com/news/2013/jan/24/tobacco-smuggling-bill-to-recover-80-of-revenue/
Lear MoreRomania Turns up Heat on Cigarette Smuggling
Armed with state-of-the-art sensors and surveillance cameras, authorities in Romania say they are gaining the upper hand against rampant cigarette smuggling along the country’s porous border with Ukraine. Ukraine, to the north, is a hotbed of smugglers seeking to profit from vastly higher prices on the other side of the rugged border. A pack of cigarettes rolled in makeshift workshops can sell for as little as half a euro — and the price immediately doubles over the northern Transylvania and gets dramatically higher the closer they get to western capitals. Some 9.7 million packs of cigarettes were confiscated in 2012 by police, who say they have busted 30 organized gangs. The patrols also stopped over 130 individual smugglers and recovered 268 stolen cars and vans. The turning point in the daily battle — waged in diverse terrain ranging from steppe to rugged mountains— came in July when EU funds totaling some €2 million ($2.66 million) were invested in seismic sensors able to detect footsteps, surveillance cameras and other equipment. Some €9 million worth of cigarettes alone have since been confiscated, officials say.”We used to patrol through extreme weather, through cold and through rain, but the new technology makes our work much easier and the traffic has visibly decreased,” chief agent Olimpiu Breton told The Associated Press. He says the X-ray systems — known as Robo-Scan — are working night and day and can detect whatever may be stashed inside passing trucks. Video obtained by the AP showed officials intercepting an oil tanker, filled with contraband cigarettes.After Romania became an EU member in 2007, life in the quiet northernmost region some 650 kilometers (400 miles) north of Bucharest changed dramatically. Many people went to work abroad; those who remained had little option but to seek easy money. The 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) of border make Romania the European state with the longest external frontier. And with it came not just smuggled cigarettes, but also drugs, cars and human trafficking. The smuggling has also been rampant in other Balkan countries, as a result of the wars of 1990s.Struggling uphill alongside his horse, woodcutter Ionut Opris sighed at the thought of what until recently had been a crime zone: “Smugglers are Romania’s biggest thieves! We work hard, in the forest, in rain and cold, for less than €150 per month and pay taxes, while these guys, with their cigarettes, do nothing but steal.”
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Bulgarian customs seize large amount of fake perfumes
Bulgarian customs officers seized large amount of fake perfumes from ‘suitcase traders’ at the Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint, the press office of the National Customs Agency announced for FOCUS News Agency.Some 2,155 fake perfumes and toilet waters, worth more than BGN 200,000, were seized during the weekend. Big part of the illegal replicas bears the logos of popular world brands.Some 1,412 of the fake perfumes were seized after a check on a mini-van with Polish registration, which was travelling from Turkey through Bulgaria to Poland. Earlier authorities seized other 743 fake perfumes and toilet waters from a passenger’s bus with Turkish registration. Three Romanian nationals were arrested.
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Import duty hike to up gold smuggling
CHENNAI: An increase in the import duty on gold, the third in less than a year, is expected to lead to a rise in smuggling of the precious metal into the country. On Monday, the government hiked the import duty on gold from 4% to 6%.Air customs officials speculate that more gold will be smuggled from abroad through airports as import duty is now at its steepest. 
There has been an increase in smuggling of gold through Chennai from Sri Lanka, Singapore,Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries over the past three years.This is the third time the government has raised import duty on gold. In March 2012, the government doubled import duty on standard gold from 2% to 4%. In January 2012, it increased duty from 1% to 2%. Of the 800 tonnes of gold that India imports every year, one-fourth is accounted for by Tamil Nadu.