Project O-Neptune nets three arrests
CORNWALL, Ontario – Law enforcement in the Cornwall area say a sting operation has led to the arrest of a trio of Cornwallites involved with cross-border contraband tobacco smuggling this past summer. The Cornwall Regional Task Force – Serious and Organized Crime (CRTF-SOC) team said David Frank Delormier, 32, Nathaniel Lee Gatien, 28, and Micheal Mark Durocher, 29, face charges Wednesday, after investigators concluded Project O-Neptune.
Lear More
Manager of Springfield tobacco sales warehouse admits role in $43 million scheme to deprive government of excise taxes
SPRINGFIELD — A tobacco wholesaler who ran a warehouse in this city pleaded guilty to trafficking smokeless tobacco products, as part of a larger interstate cigar and tobacco smuggling ring that robbed the government of $43 million in excise taxes.
Jaspal Singh, of Seymour, Conn., is an immigrant from India and faces deportation in addition to a maximum of five years in prison. He struck a plea deal that will include potentially testifying against the man prosecutors say was the ringleader: Syed I. Bokhari, of Middletown, Conn.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/10/manager_of_springfield_tobacco.html
Lear MoreEgyptian man faces tobacco smuggling charges
An Egyptian man is facing smuggling charges after being caught at Larnaca Airport with 63kg of Hookah tobacco. According to the police, Tarek Fathalla Elsayed Menesy was arrested following a flight from Egypt on Friday after customs officials found 82 packets of tobacco in his suitcases. The tobacco would have lost the government some €13,000 in tax revenues if it was successfully smuggled onto the market.
Lear More
Patients sue clinics, distributor over falsified spinal implants
Dozens of people in the US have filed lawsuits against an equipment distributor and several healthcare facilities for using unapproved implants in spinal surgery.
The lawsuits centre on spinal implants distributed by now-defunct Spinal Solutions LLC to clinics, and paints a picture of an organised fraudulent network fuelled by kickbacks given in exchange for patient referrals to spinal surgeons.
Lear More
Out of control smuggling has tobacco farmers worried
Farmer Nguyen Van Sau in the southern province of Tay Ninh’s Ben Cau District is relieved that it has been a profitable year for tobacco farmers, as the crop has fed his family and hundreds of others for decades. Still, Sau and other farmers are increasingly concerned about the rapid increase in cigarette smuggling along Tay Ninh’s long border with Cambodia.
“Smuggled cigarettes are bad for our business, and they lower our tobacco prices,” he told Viet Nam News.
Pham Kien Nghiep, general secretary of the Viet Nam Tobacco Association (VAT), said the number of smugglers had risen greatly due to the huge profits. In fact, the smuggling of cigarettes in Viet Nam is far worse than most people realise. In a survey conducted in 2012 by the Oxford Economics Department and the US-based International Tax and Investment Centre, the country ranked second in Asia in the number of smuggled cigarettes.
Lear More
How Counterfeit Anabolic Steroids Cross US Border
Anabolic steroids are made in various countries and have to cross international borders to get to their target market. Smuggling anabolic steroids involves complicated organized crime and made combined with the smuggling efforts of other illicit drugs. But unlike psychoactive illegal drugs such as heroin and cannabis, there have not been any high profile cases in the news of anabolic steroids smugglers being caught in the act.
http://www.healthaim.com/how-counterfeit-anabolic-steroids-cross-us-border/6413
Lear More
Cornwall cops could lay new criminal charges on smugglers
An anti-contraband tobacco official says new legislation should beef up police force’s capabilities against cigarette smuggling. The federal government is passing tougher legislation, Bill C-10, that would allow police to slap smugglers with criminal charges, possibly leading to much harsher convictions, said Gary Grant, national spokesperson for the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco.
“We’re looking toward a Quebec model,” Grant said, after meeting with Cornwall Community Police Service Chief Dan Parkinson.
Lear More
Feds prosecuting $43M tobacco smuggling case
Federal prosecutors allege a Connecticut man defrauded taxpayers in that state and in Massachusetts of $43 million in a tobacco smuggling case. According to U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, Syed Bokhari, 50, of Middletown, Conn., appeared in federal court Friday in connection with a 32-count indictment alleging conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, trafficking in contraband smokeless tobacco, money laundering, and violation of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act.
http://www.wbjournal.com/article/20141020/NEWS01/141029992
Lear MoreFake cigarettes cause OMR3.5m loss to country
Smuggling of counterfeit cigarettes leads to a revenue loss of nearly OMR3.5 million to the country and they constitute 21 per cent of illegal products being brought into the Omani market by smugglers. Further, the majority of consumers who buy smuggled goods are between the age group of 18 and 45, according to a study conducted by the Euromonitor Research Associate. The study revealed that illegally smuggled goods are in high demand among low-income expatriates due to their crave for less expensive products.
Lear More
Tobacco firms rue weak anti-smuggling campaign
The domestic tobacco industry hopes that the Government can be more effective in fighting an impending surge in smuggling that causes losses amounting to trillions of dong to the State Budget. A report in the Cong Thuong (Industry and Trade) Newspaper last week quoted Pham Kien Nghiep, the General Secretary of the Viet Nam Tobacco Association’s (VTA), as saying: “Current legal sanctions are ineffective to deal with tobacco smugglers, who include both local residents and carriers from elsewhere.” Nghiep said he was aware that the law enforcement agencies faced a difficult task since the smugglers were fighting back to protect their goods and also managing to escape when stopped.
Under current rules, smugglers will face criminal charges if they are caught transporting 1,500 cigarette packets or more. However, they spilt their goods into smaller portions, making it difficult to charge them with the crime.
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/114179/tobacco-firms-rue-weak-anti-smuggling-campaign.html
Lear More