Police seize tobacco allegedly smuggled by snowmobiles along St. Lawrence
Officials say they’ve broken up an alleged smuggling operation that was moving tobacco along the frozen shore of the St. Lawrence River on snowmobiles.
The Cornwall Regional Task Force says officers spotted five snowmobiles pulling snow tub sleds on March 2 and watched as the contents of the sleds were loaded into a cube van near Fraser Point, Que. Task force officers intercepted the snowmobile riders, while Quebec Provincial Police stopped the van and seized 2,678 kilograms of fine cut tobacco.
Eltingville husband and wife indicted in federal cigarette smuggling scheme
Fourteen people, including a Staten Island husband and wife, were indicted on federal charges for allegedly smuggling contraband cigarettes from southern states to sell in New York.
The defendants made a “substantial profit,” officials said, by purchasing large quantities of cigarettes in Missouri and Georgia, where the state tax is significantly cheaper, and selling them in New York, according to a 14-count indictment handed down Feb. 18 and unsealed last Thursday.
New York, which imposes a combined state-local tax of $5.85 per package compared with 22 cents in Missouri, lost more than $20 million as a result, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement.
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/eltingville_husband_and_wife_b.html
Lear MorePharmaceuticals And Food Anti-Counterfeiting Technologies Market To Witness Enhanced Rate Of Application Till 2020: Grand View Research, Inc.
Deceptive representation of an original food product and pharmaceutical is referred to as counterfeiting. Increasing growth of low quality and cheap counterfeit products mainly pertaining to the food and pharmaceuticals industries have promoted the rate of implementation of anti-counterfeiting technologies. Trace technologies, covert features enabling and overt/visible feature are some of the key technologies associated with anti-counterfeiting.
Cigarette smuggling goes up in Romania in January
The cigarette smuggling rate increased in Romania to 17.8% in January, compared to a rate of 17.5% in November last year, according to Novel Research.
The north-east region continues to be the most affected area in Romania by cigarette smuggling. The illegal tobacco market had a share of 36.8% in the total market in this region and there are villages in Suceava and Botosani counties where contraband cigarettes represent almost 90% of the total consumption.
http://www.romania-insider.com/cigarette-smuggling-goes-up-in-romania-in-january/166583/
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Girl used in tobacco-smuggling operation
TWO men were arrested after a 14-year-old girl was caught crossing over from the occupied areas with 10 kilos of tobacco, police said on Wednesday. The men, 33 and 25, are Nicosia residents. They are being investigated for illegally possessing untaxed goods, and smuggling.
At around 7:20pm on Tuesday, police said, customs stopped the young girl at the Ledra Palace checkpoint in Nicosia and found she was carrying 10 kilos of tobacco from the north.
In collaboration with police, they followed her to a meeting point at a parking area There, she met the two men who were in a car.
http://cyprus-mail.com/2016/03/09/girl-used-tobacco-smuggling-operation/
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Cigarettes: MEPs oppose renewing EU anti-smuggling deals with tobacco firms
MEPs urge the EU Commission to use all possible EU and international legal tools to combat cigarette smuggling© AP Images/European Union – EP
A majority of MEPs urged the European Commission not to renew an EU anti-smuggling and anti-counterfeiting deal with Philip Morris International (PMI), which expires in July 2016, in a resolution voted on Wednesday. Instead, they ask it to focus on using EU and international legislative tools to combat smuggling.
MEPs note that the PMI deal proved ineffective because although it initially reduced smuggling, a surge in smuggled non-branded “cheap white” cigarettes soon filled the gap.
Influx of fake agro-chemical products worrying
The influx of fake and adulterated agro-chemical products on the market is a big concern for agri-businesses, and there has been a call for the collective support of all stakeholders in the agro-chemical industry to overcome this menace.
The development where people continue selling fake products to farmers poses a big challenge particularly to industry players, despite ongoing effort to tackle it; such products flooding the market are part of the reasons for low yields being recorded by farmers across the country.
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/Influx-of-fake-agro-chemical-products-worrying-421755
Lear MoreNamibian court fines Zim truck drivers for cigarette smuggling
Harare – Two Zimbabwean truck drivers, who were arrested last year over the smuggling of contraband cigarettes through Namibia, have been sentenced to a fine of N$108 000 each or 13 years in jail.
The men were arrested on May 6, 2015. They were driving two trucks laden with a consignment of cigarettes valued at N$11.3 million, Namibian newspaper New Era has reported.
Black market: Online brand protection
Counterfeit sites and goods are proliferating across several sectors. How can brands protect themselves online from fraudsters, cheats and copycats? Brittany Golob investigates
Perhaps a woman buys a new Louis Vuitton handbag, at a bit of a discount, through a third party website. It arrives and soon after, the handle breaks. She takes it to an LV retailer only to discover that her bag is not the genuine article. She, like 24% of global shoppers, has unknowingly purchased a counterfeit item online, according to the ‘Global consumer shopping habits survey’ carried out by online brand protection company MarkMonitor.
http://www.transformmagazine.net/articles/2016/black-market-online-brand-protection/
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RongKluea Vendors Given Time to Sell Counterfeits
In response to a Thai military crackdown on counterfeit products in multiple Cambodian-owned stores and warehouses at the RongKluea market on Saturday morning, the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that Cambodian vendors will be given until the end of April to sell off their remaining counterfeit goods before they are subject to more Thai intervention.
“The Thai authorities will not implement the clearance of [fake] copyright goods in Sakaeo province until the end of April 2016,” Ministry Spokesman Chum Sounry’s statement read.
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/22349/rong-kluea-vendors-given-time-to-sell-counterfeits/
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