Illicit tobacco seized by trading standards officers
Trading Standards officials have uncovered a haul of illicit tobacco and cigarettes during an operation in Grimsby.
Officers from North East Lincolnshire Council, working with specially trained sniffer dogs, found the illicit products as they searched three shops and a flat in Freeman Street and a further flat on the Willows Estate.
Officers found tobacco and cigarettes with a total street value of £8,405 and which would cost £20,172 to buy legitimately. The discovery includes tobacco and cigarettes suspected of being counterfeit, and other non-duty paid products which cannot be legally sold in the UK.
The haul included the discovery of some red packet Jin Ling cigarettes, which are thought to be among the first to have been found in the UK.
http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2017-06-28/illicit-tobacco-seized-by-trading-standards-officers/
Lear MoreImmigration officer detained at Tiruchi airport over gold smuggling
An Assistant Immigration Officer at Tiruchi international airport has been detained by the Air Intelligence Unit of Customs after he was allegedly found in the possession of gold biscuits weighing 1.5 kg.
The gold biscuits were apparently handed over to the officer Balaji Bhaskar by a passenger Sadiq Ali upon arrival from Kuala Lumpur by an Air Asia flight in the early hours. The passenger has also been detained by the Air Intelligence Unit. The value of the seized gold biscuits was put at Rs. 43 lakh.
The officer was deputed to serve in the Tiruchi Immigration Unit from Intelligence Bureau. He had earlier served in the IB at Tiruchi and thereafter posted at Chennai.
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Newcastle man Aran Saied had 40,000 illicit cigarettes in car
A man who had almost 40,000 illicit cigarettes in his car has been given a suspended prison sentence.
The contraband in Aran Mohammed Saied’s car was worth £10,100 in duty tax, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said. Saied, 33, of Ellesmere Road, Newcastle, was found guilty of fraudulently evading excise duty.
He was sentenced to nine months in jail suspended for 12 months at Newcastle Crown Court and ordered to complete 150 hours unpaid work. Saied, who is unemployed, had denied the offence but was found guilty at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court, was also told to pay £400 in costs and a £140 victim surcharge.
Saied was pulled over by North Yorkshire Police on the A1 near Catterick in September because the car he was driving had no MOT. Officers found 39,820 illicit cigarettes and £2,775 in cash hidden in boxes, the HMRC said.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-40408064
Lear More560 people arrested in Nagaland for smuggling liquor & banned
Nagaland police has arrested 560 people for smuggling liquor and banned drugs during the last 18 months, a senior police officer said today.
The police had also seized 9711 kg of ganja, 63.75 kg of opium, 12 grams of heroin, 4.5 kg of brown sugar, 1 kg of Yaba, 5,27,626 spasmo proxyvon capsules, 12,297 bottles of cough syrup and 2,02,919 bottles of India Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) during this period.
This was revealed by Inspector General of Police (Crime) Kewetso Mero while speaking on the occasion of International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking here.
The IGP said the seizures may be the tip of the iceberg only while much more must be entering the state, but “we do not have the manpower, gadgets and the knowledge to identify and detect such materials”.
Lear More4 smuggling rackets busted at air cargo complex in 2 months
MUMBAI: In the past two months, at least four different agencies have unearthed as many smuggling rackets in the air cargo complex at Sahar, raising questions about the existing monitoring system.
The latest was on Saturday when officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) intercepted a consignment declared as ‘machine parts and crankshaft’ and seized five kg of gold worth Rs 1.39 crore and Iridium worth Rs 30 lakh. Iridium is used by jewellers for mixing with gold to add weight. The metal, much cheaper than gold, is mixed while melting and is difficult to trace.
In another case last week, the Special Intelligence and Investigation Branch(SIIB) of the customs unearthed a racket involving smuggling of mobile phones and laptops by misdeclaring them as chemicals. Two other cases of smuggling, involving blank guns and mobile accessories, were unearthed by the directorate of vigilance and the Central Intelligence Unit.
Lear MoreWoman caught smuggling cigarettes and tobacco into UK at Gatwick Airport is sentenced
A woman who smuggled thousands of pounds worth of cigarettes and tobacco into the UK through a host of airports including Gatwick has been sentenced.
Lavinia Akyurt, 42, of Hartlepool at the time of the offences, now of Southsea, Hampshire was arrested in September last year at Gatwick Airport in connection with the offences.
An investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) found that between January 2015 and September 2016, she smuggled tobacco on four occasions and organised two smuggling attempts by family members.
In total, 59,400 cigarettes and 23.25 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco were smuggled through London Stansted, Durham Tees Valley, and Gatwick airports.
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Police seize counterfeit brand-name products in Southern Taiwan
KAOHSIUNG – More than 6,000 pieces of counterfeit brand-name clothing and footwear were seized in Tainan and Kaohsiung in police raids targeted at markets in those two cities in southern Taiwan, police said Friday. The brands include Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Nike, Addidas, Under Armour, New Balance, Hello Kitty and Doraemon.
Some of seized counterfeit articles, including sneakers and T-shirts, were put on display at an office of the Second Special Police Corps in Kaohsiung. They would have a total value of NT$5 million (US$164,100) at retails stores if they were genuine, an officer told reporters.
The counterfeits were seized from six vendors in Tainan and Kaohsiung who had been selling them at traditional markets and night markets, which often attract large numbers of tourists, said Tai Chao-tung, a captain of the Special Police Corps’ Criminal Investigation Brigade.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2017/06/23/498984/police-seize.htm
Lear MorePretend wheelchair bound passenger arrested for gold smuggling
A male passenger acting as a disable person arrested for alleged gold smuggling at Chhatrpati Shivaji International Airport.
Customs official said, the accused Nimisha Gudhka from Jamnagar, Gujarat arrived from Dubai and was trying to smuggle gold weighing 660 grams, worth 19.8 lakh concealed in his trouser pocket and purse.
In a trick to fool airport officials the passenger requested a wheelchair and attendant to exit the airport, but his body language rose suspicion of officials, upon interrogation confessed to smuggling in gold.
As the value of the gold was not too high he was only booked under Customs Act and let off, that is time everybody surprised that the passenger stood up on his feet and walked away.
http://citytoday.news/pretend-wheelchair-bound-passenger-arrested-for-gold-smuggling/
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Man jailed after trading illegal tobacco
A man from Oswaldtwistle has been jailed for evading more than £2 million in taxes by trading in illegal tobacco.
49-year-old Lee Foster, of Highfield Close, was caught by HM Revenue and Customs buying illegal cigarettes and tobacco to sell on during a surveillance operation in 2014.
He was arrested at Manchester Airport just before Christmas as he flew home from a holiday in Tenerife. Today he was jailed for four years and nine months for his part in a £16.5 million Excise Duty fraud that centred on a criminal network based in Blackburn.
Detailed records kept by the gang leader, Iqbal Haji, of Blackburn, mention Foster 183 times buying illegal tobacco products to sell on during a four-year period. Sandra Smith, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC.
https://www.2br.co.uk/news/local-news/2315010/man-jailed-after-trading-illegal-tobacco/
Lear MoreTones of tobacco detected in the east of the country
Tones of tobacco have been detected by customs officers and prosecutors in the eastern part of the country. Law enforcers disclosed and liquidated a criminal group, specializing in large-scale tobacco smuggling.
Several searches and detentions have been conducted in this respect.
Thus, on the evening of June 13, in the region of Budesti, law enforcers stopped a truck of Kamaz model. Its trailer contained 220 boxes with 5940 kg of fermented tobacco without documents of origin, meant to be fraudulently transported over the eastern border of the country. The truck was accompanied by another car, whose driver had the role of an escort, moving ahead of the truck, a tactic used by smugglers to inspect the predetermined route and to inform the driver of the truck transporting the goods about the possibility to continue the movement.
https://en.crimemoldova.com/news/crime/tones-of-tobacco-detected-in-the-east-of-the-country/
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