Smuggling gang from Walton-on-Thames, Epsom and north London sentenced after trafficking nearly 500,000 untaxed cigarettes
A smuggling gang cheated the taxman out of more than £115,000 while trafficking nearly 500,000 cigarettes in Surrey.
One of the gang, Dominik Mrzyglod, 38, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to fraud as well as a separate offence of smuggling 1.2million cigarettes inside table tops.
Abdul Faki, 52, was jailed for 18 months for his role in the scheme, while Sebastian Swiezy, 36, was spared jail, but ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work in the community.
Investigators from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) saw Mrzyglod and Swiezy suppling Faki with untaxed cigarettes at a car park in Dorking on December 16, 2015.
Officers arrested Faki, of Chandos Road, north London, at the scene and found 486,700 B&B cigarettes in the white van he was helping to load. Mrzyglod and Swiezy fled before officers could arrest them.
Lear MoreFive suspects on the loose after police foil HK$1.4 million smuggling bid during typhoon warning
While most Hongkongers took shelter indoors as Tropical Storm Merbok raged, a group of smugglers braved the bad weather in a bid to smuggle electronic products into the mainland by sea on Monday night.
Their attempt was foiled by marine police, who confiscated more than HK$1.4 million worth of electronic products including smartphones and tablets, and impounded a car worth about HK$50,000 at the Sha Tau Kok pier. Five suspected smugglers managed to escape.
“We believe the gang took advantage of the typhoon warning to smuggle the goods because they thought no law enforcers were on patrol on both sides of the sea boundary during the No 8 typhoon signal,” a police source said.
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Man Tries To Smuggle Gold Worth Rs. 35 Lakh In A Bucket
Customs officials detained a man at the Chennai airport today for allegedly trying to smuggle gold worth around Rs. 35 lakh.
CHENNAI: Customs officials detained a man at the Chennai airport today for allegedly trying to smuggle gold worth around Rs. 35 lakh. The man had arrived in Chennai from Doha and had concealed the gold under dates, which he was carrying in a bucket, airport officials said.
Custom officials finally found 1 kg of gold in his possession. Airport officials also found undeclared USD 750 in a Colombo-bound passenger’s handbag.
http://www.ndtv.com/chennai-news/man-tries-to-smuggle-gold-worth-rs-35-lakh-in-a-bucket-1711540
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India suffers huge loss from illicit trade: FICCI-CASCADE Report
New Delhi, June 13 (KNN) In India the total loss to the government on account of illicit markets in just seven manufacturing sectors is Rs 39,239 crores, an estimate according to report
According to the FICCI-CASCADE report, amongst the various sectors, the maximum revenue loss to the exchequer on account of counterfeiting and illicit trade is attributed to tobacco products (Rs. 9139 crores) followed by mobile phones (Rs 6705 crore) and alcoholic beverages (Rs 6309 crore).
Stating illicit products are adversely affecting Indian consumers, the total estimated loss to the industry is Rs 1,05,381 crores, an increase of 44.4%.
The report further mentioned that nearly 20% of accidents on Indian roads are caused by counterfeit auto-products. Further in the FMCG sector, 30% goods sold are fake and 80% consumers believe that they are using genuine products, it added.
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Counterfeit products worth Sh1.2 billion seized over the last seven years
Counterfeit goods valued at Sh1.2 billion have been seized in the country by the Anti-Counterfeit Agency (ACA) in the last seven years.
ACA chief inspector Caspar Oluoch said so far counterfeit goods worth Sh500 million have been destroyed. He explained that the counterfeit cargo included electronic gadgets such as mobile phones, DVD players, toners, print cartridges and bulbs.
Other counterfeit goods included Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) refilling equipment, detergents as well as illicit sugar and rice. Some of the fake goods the anti-counterfeit agency seized were cigarettes which had been imported from China which had been declared as cotton buds.
Mr Oluoch said the fake cigarettes valued at Sh43 million which were seized in 2012 were destroyed in Mombasa in 2014. The head of the anti-counterfeit agency revealed that two containers of illicit sugar were seized in Mombasa in 2014.
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Smugglers caught with thousands of fake dollar bills
Police in Battambang have arrested three Thai men and a Cambodian for attempting to smuggle counterfeit notes worth more than $55,000 over the border from Thailand.
The men were apprehended as they tried to take the fake $100 banknotes through Duong International Border Checkpoint in Kamrieng district. The Thai suspects were named as Keat Thesak, 35, Samjit Kamphum, 34, and Ung Ath Siwatkon, 28. The Cambodian man was identified as Beth Sopha, 37.
District police officer First Lieutenant Khann Mao said the arrests were made on Saturday after police informants alerted officers to the crime.
“We were informed that a group of smugglers were planning to traffic counterfeit money into the country. “Our police arrested the smugglers and seized $55,300 in fake bills when they were crossing the border into Cambodia,” Lt Mao said, adding the fake banknotes had been packed in a brown plastic bag.
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/39113/smugglers-caught-with-thousands-of-fake-dollar-bills/
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Smuggled cigarettes worth NT$20 million seized in Kaohsiung
Taipei, June 6 (CNA) Kaohsiung Customs officers on Tuesday seized a shipping container of smuggled cigarettes that were estimated to have a market value of about NT$20 million (US$676,000).
The officers said that after checking the shipping list, they became suspicious of a container of goods being transshipped from Singapore and declared as polyethylene.
They then ordered the goods unloaded from the container vessel for inspection. The container was found to contain 900 cartons of cigarettes worth an estimated NT$20 million.
The Ministry of Finance and relevant central and local government agencies have adopted tougher measures to combat cigarette and tobacco smuggling since Oct. 20 last year in anticipation that a law that could double the health surcharge on cigarettes from NT$10 per pack to NT$20 from June 12 could spur smuggling.
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201706060030.aspx
Lear MoreLatvia seizes 5 tons of counterfeit coffee destined for EU market
More than five tons of counterfeit coffee with fake Nestle and Nescafe labels destined for the EU market have been seized by Latvian authorities.
The Customs Police of the Latvian State Revenue Service said that it also found coffee processing and packaging equipment in an excise warehouse in Marupe, suburb of the Latvian capital Riga, and a plant in Riga.
The criminal gang had planned to sell the counterfeit coffee on the EU market.
The Customs Police found 21 palettes with coffee that had Nescafe Gold Blend labels on in the warehouse. There were also 1,260 Nescafe Gold Blend jars of 500 grams, and 6,048 jars of 750 grams. A coffee processing plant in Riga has been identified as the consigner, and a Lithuanian company as a consignee.
An investigation is underway. Samples of the confiscated goods have been sent to the authorized representative of Nestle and Nescafe brands, and it was determined that these were counterfeit goods and packaging.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-06/01/c_136332413.htm
Lear MoreSmuggler who stashed £12,000 in kitchen bin jailed after being caught with 40,000 illicit cigarettes
A serial smuggler who tried to stash £12,000 in a bin when tax inspectors came calling has been jailed, after being caught with over 40,000 illicit cigarettes.
Repeat offender Thomas Griffiths, 57, of Durham Street, Spennymoor, had already spent 22 months in prison for dealing in smuggled tobacco, and on Wednesday he was handed another 21 month sentence.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) caught Griffiths with 40,180 non-duty paid cigarettes in his car and 3,740 stashed in his home. The haul was worth an estimated £11,000 in unpaid duty. Officers also found £12,000 cash hidden in a kitchen bin.
The latest offence was uncovered in April 2014, just one month before he went on trial for another smuggling offence. He was convicted and jailed for 10 months in June 2014 after he was found with 176,000 non-duty paid cigarettes and 112kg of rolling tobacco in his car and two storage units.
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/smuggler-who-stashed-12000-kitchen-13126440
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Treat illicit trade as national threat, Ficci urges government
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) on Thursday urged the government to tackle smuggling and counterfeiting of goods as national threat, as they result in India losing around Rs. 39,239 crore in taxes every year.
In a letter to various ministries concerned, including Finance Ministry, Ficci’s Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy (Cascade) said the top five goods where seizures by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had been the highest in the past few years have been gold, cigarettes, machinery parts, fabric/silk yarn and electronic items.
The Ficci had earlier revealed facts about and impact of illicit trade in its report “Invisible Enemy – A Threat to Our National Interests”.
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