Smoking out contraband cigarettes in Northumberland
Whether they’re left crumpled and fizzling on the sidewalk, or tossed with a flick of a finger out a truck’s window, black market cigarettes can be found anywhere in Ontario.
Just take a look around local shopping centres.
Check the hospital parking lots.
Check the public parks.
Check the high schools.
There’s a rise of cheap tobacco circulating Ontario as some of the province’s 2.2-million smokers are turning to the black market for their nicotine fix. Rather than paying $2.80 of provincial tax on a pack of 20 cigarettes, smokers are picking up plastic, no-name, knock-off cigarettes either designed for First Nation reserves or the U.S. market for merely $8 for 200 cigarettes.
It’s hard to pass up a good deal, right? Especially when it’s a widely viewed as a victimless crime.
Dearborn Co. Prosecutor’s Office Helps End Counterfeit Goggle Business
Dearborn County authorities are being credited with helping bust a Chinese company selling counterfeit combat goggles.
The company named Guangzhou Botai Optical Visor Co., Ltd. is accused of illegally manufacturing and selling counterfeit military-grade goggles. The goggles that the knock-offs imitated are manufactured by U.S. company Revision Military. The goggles are used by special forces.
According to a news release from Revision Military, the phoney goggles were distributed under the pretense of providing military-grade ballistic protection which presents a hazard to the safety of users expecting the high level eye protection which of the authentic product. Testing, Revision claims, showed that Guangzhou Botai’s goggles met none of the industry standards for optical or ballistic quality.
House: Smuggling = economic sabotage
A BILL defining smuggling as an act of economic sabotage is getting closer to becoming law after the House of Representatives ratified its final version in the chamber, drawing praises from a group of farmers and agriculture industry players that has been lobbying for tougher penalties for the illegal entry of agricultural products into the country. The bill has received the full support of the SamahangIndustriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag), a group of 33 farmers and agriculture associations across the country. Rep. Romero Quimbo, ways and means committee chair, said he expects President Aquino to sign the proposed Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act into law after the House and Senate agreed to its final version in the bicameral conference level.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/761272/house-smuggling-economic-sabotage#ixzz3zBsegRZr
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Flush-out Companies Trading Fake Products
Ghana standards Authority is also expected to put in place the necessary mechanisms to track fake and substandard goods that reach the market through our porous entry points.The Administrator of Cosharis Ghana Limited Mr. Samuel Coffi was addressing Journalists in Accra after the High Court General Jurisdiction 3, ordered them to confiscate the products of a Company called SadhnaImpex Ltd for faking their products.According to him, Sadhnalmpex Ltd has been faking their products for almost three years now which has been crippling their business.
http://www.newsghana.com.gh/flush-out-companies-trading-fake-products/
Lear MoreDangerous counterfeit vodka ‘thought to have been sold in Chester’
Dangerous counterfeit vodka which could cause blindness and seizures is thought to have been sold in Chester . The bootleg booze was ‘Chekov’-branded but found to contain high levels of methanol, which is ‘extremely poisonous’ and can cause organ failure and death in extreme cases. Trading Standards said the vodka was ‘thought to have been sold in the Halton and Chester areas’. The fake product is a counterfeit version of the genuine Chekov brand sold by Booker Wholesale.
ICE cracks down on counterfeit NFL products
SAN JOSE, Calif — Just days ahead of Super Bowl 50, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has announced that they have seized at least $20 million of counterfeit NFL merchandise. The fake swag was confiscated in various locations from San Francisco down to the South Bay. Bruce Foucart, the director of Homeland Security Intellectual Property Rights, said officers have seized all sorts of bogus merchandise over the last couple weeks, including hats, t-shirts and replica Super Bowl rings. These poor quality products are bad for a number of reasons, according to Foucart. “We estimate that the U-S economy loses between $250 billion and $300 billion to counterfeiting every year. But beyond just being bad for business, Foucart said there is a far bigger problem than just hurting the bottom line of the wealthy NFL. “We’ve seen an instance where an individual has sold these goods and invested it (the earnings) in guns to carry out terrorist attacks overseas,” said Foucart.
http://www.kionrightnow.com/news/local-news/ice-cracks-down-on-counterfeit-nfl-products/37808892
Lear MoreNew Brunswick Budget Makes Contraband Tobacco Worse
The National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco (NCACT) said that the New Brunswick government’s decision to increase tobacco taxes by 6.52 cents per cigarette will only serve to fuel the province’s growing contraband tobacco problem. The increase in taxes – more than $14 per carton when the increased HST is considered – is actually more than the cost of many illegal cigarettes.”Illegal cigarettes are a growing and significant problem in New Brunswick, and an increase in the cost of legal product will only serve to make this problem worse,” said Gary Grant, a 39-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service and national spokesperson for the NCACT. “The RCMP indicates that a steady stream of contraband tobacco is making its way into and through the province from factories in Quebec and Ontario. If anything, the smugglers are adapting their smuggling networks to make it even harder for police to disrupt their shipments.”
http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/new-brunswick-budget-makes-contraband-tobacco-worse-567402201.html
HUL, Colgate, Nestle are getting fake Patanjali products tested in labs: Baba Ramdev
They were doing this because they fear his firm is winning over customers, believes Ramde. Yoga guru Ramdev has gone offensive against global consumer goods makers as his Patanjali brand fights for market share against the top-selling products of Hindustan Unilever, Nestle and Colgate-Palmolive. Ramdev accused them on Monday of conspiring against Patanjali by getting fake and adulterated products tested in laboratories for irregular results. They were doing this because they fear his firm is winning over customers, he said. “Multinational firms like Hindustan Unilever, Colgate and Nestle are bribing people to get fake and adulterated Patanjali products tested in labs,” Ramdev said at a press briefing. “Sometimes they even produce reports from fake laboratories to malign us.” Nestle denied the accusation.
Residents warned to be on lookout for dangerous fake Chekov vodka in circulation
RESIDENTS are being warned after police stated a batch of dangerous fake vodka which may put lives at risk could be in distribution around the region. A quantity of counterfeit alcohol and tobacco was seized from a vehicle in Runcorn during a joint operation by the police and Halton Trading Standards and further supplies of fake alcohol were found at another address in Halton. And initial investigations suggest the product could be in circulation around the North-West.Tests of the fake Chekov brand vodka have found the product contains very high levels of methanol, which is extremely poisonous and can cause blindness, seizure, organ failure and in extreme cases death. The product is a counterfeit version of a genuine product sold by the brand owner Booker Wholesale. It is thought the product has been sold in the Halton and Chester areas but initial investigations suggest the product could also be in circulation throughout the North West.
Suspected counterfeiter arrested at SIA Snow Show
A Chinese man has been arrested at a trade exhibition on suspicion of manufacturing and selling fake ballistic eyewear. The arrest at the SnowSports Industries America (SIA) Snow Show in Denver was of Gong Peiwen (also known as Daniel Gong ), part owner of Guangzhou Botai Optical Visor which is accused of producing fake versions of a ballistic google product manufactured by Vermont company Revision Military. The company assisted in the operation, which saw Gong taken into custody on the showroom floor and arrest warrants issued for brothers Jiang Xingde and Jiang Xinglin – also co-owners of Guangzhou Botai – and Ding Xiaoxia, also known as Crystal Ding.