News Forum

From: Guardian

Stephen Burgen in Barcelona

From: Talking Retail

By Liz Wells

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Evidence of the offences was obtained via a series of undercover mystery shopping operations conducted outside a car boot sale held at Coles Park Stadium, London, N17. Eight illegal products, all 50g packs of roll-your-own tobacco, were purchased during the investigation.

A spokesman for JTI said: “We welcome the decision made by the court in this case. This is the second successful private prosecution supported by JTI against a criminal selling illegal tobacco, which demonstrates the company’s commitment to help tackle the problem of illegal tobacco and we will not hesitate to take similar action in future.”

From: The Independent

Illegally produced local cigarettes pose a potential threat to the success the government has made in last few years by increasing the price of cigarettes with an aim to controlling the consumption of tobacco products. A market investigation revealed three types of illegal cigarettes – smuggled cigarettes from abroad, products faking local popular brands and locally produced cigarettes evading taxation. Thanks to the promptness of tax department and administration, the issue of smuggled cigarettes often made headlines. But remote and underdeveloped regions are home to the biggest market of locally produced and tax evading cigarettes. That’s why they hardly come under the surveillance of the law enforcers and government monitoring systems. These cigarettes are marked with fake or reused bandroll or tax stamp. This type is gaining popularity in every corner of the country due to its cheap price and lack of surveillance.

From: The Chester Chronicle

Last week dogs Willow and Ted assisted in sniffing out hidden stashes of tobacco

Willow indicates a find.

Left, Willow indicates there’s something hidden behind the cupboard which opens up, right, to reveal illicit tobacco products.
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Seizures included cigarettes and tobacco that were not in standardised packaging and failed to contain health warnings in English. These products cannot be legally sold in the UK.

Councillor Karen Shore, cabinet member for environment and community, praised the use of the dogs who are provided by Wagtail UK Ltd.

Read Complete Article

From: Bloomberg

By Charlie Devereux

• Armenian faction of Vory v Zakone gang targeted in Spain
•  Group allegedly smuggled tobacco, fixed sports bets in Russia

Spanish police said they captured seven key members of the Armenian faction of a Russian organized crime group described as Europe’s most dangerous gang.

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The group operated a network to smuggle contraband tobacco produced in Ukraine and Poland and distributed in France, Italy and Spain, police said. They were also involved in bribing basketball, beach volleyball, ice hockey and minor league tennis players in Azerbaijan and Russia to fix the outcome of matches, according to a Spanish police statement.

From: Fox13News.com

By: Crystal Clark, FOX 13 News

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister announced the center’s first success on Monday when two men were charged with running Florida’s biggest stolen cigarette ring.

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The center is where authorities first noticed a trend in robberies and burglaries of large quantities of cigarettes across their cities and counties. They began to compare surveillance images and tips in order to catch the culprits.

Read Complete Article

From: House Financial Services Committee

Tuesday, March 20, 2018 2:00 PM in 2128 Rayburn HOB 
Terrorism and Illicit Finance 

Click here for the Committee Memorandum.

Witness List

• Mr. Joseph Humire, Executive Director, Center for a Secure Free Society (TTF)
• Mr. Derek Maltz, Executive Director, Government Relations, Pen-Link, Ltd. (TTF)
• Ms. Celina B. Realuyo, Professor, Practice of National Security Affairs, William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, National Defense University (TTF)
• Dr. Louise Shelley, Professor, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University (TTF)

From: American Journal of Transportation

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Illegal trafficking in cigarettes generates significant profits for criminal organizations and poses a public health risk. Counterfeit cigarettes not only affect trademark owners, but defraud consumers and deprive the government of tax revenue. Consumers think they pay less for a genuine product, when in reality they pay less for a product of substandard quality.

“International counterfeiters will get caught,” said Agriculture and Prepared Products Center Director Dina M. Amato. “This seizure is the latest example of the extraordinary vigilance of CBP personnel with federal partners in Florida thwarting illegal trafficking of counterfeit cigarettes.”

From: The Baltic Course

The officials of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board during an inspection of a truck at the port of Paldiski found 4.5 million contraband cigarettes from the vehicle’s load, reports LETA/BNS.

Siim Rudissaar, head of service at the investigative department of the Tax and Customs Board, said that the truck had a Lithuanian license plate and a trailer and arrived to Estonia on February 10 through the Ikla border crossing point and on the same day headed to Paldiski to board a ship to Sweden, spokespeople for the Tax and Customs Board said.

From: Food and Drug Administration/Office of Criminal Investigations & US Department of Justice/Southern District of Florida

January 23, 2019

Abhishek Shukla and Harish Shabhai Panchal, both citizens of India, entered guilty pleas, along with the India-based company, Jubilee Tobacco Industries Corp., to conspiring to smuggle counterfeit cigarettes into the United States.

Benjamin G. Greenberg, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Peter H. Kuehl, Acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA-OCI), Miami Field Office, Mark Selby, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), Miami Field Office, and Scott Israel, Sheriff, Broward County Sheriff’s Office (BSO), made the announcement.