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Monthly Archives: March 2013
A cross-border accident waiting to happen
From: Ottawa Citizen
By Brian Lee Crowley
Canada should be uneasy about large-scale smuggling across the border.
Because keeping the border open and goods flowing with our U.S. neighbours is practically the definition of Canada’s economic self-interest, anything that attracts the unfavourable attention of Washington to our border is to be avoided at all costs. Just ask the Mexicans.
That’s why we should all be uneasy about large-scale smuggling across the border, especially where it involves, as it almost always does, organized crime.
Cross-Border Smuggling Epidemic Exposes Canada, U.S. to Security Threats, New MLI Study Warns
Editor’s Note: The MLI study, BORDER INTEGRITY, ILLICIT TOBACCO, AND CANADA’S SECURITY by Jean Daudelin with Stephanie Soiffer and Jeff Willows, is attached here.
From: Press Release
Perpetuating the status quo is both irresponsible and dangerous; it would effectively surrender control of a wide swath of the Canada-U.S. border to organized crime factions that control the contraband trade in tobacco.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, Mar 27, 2013 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Far from a victimless crime or a local police problem, cross-border smuggling is an epidemic that renders both Canada and the United States vulnerable to external security threats, a study released and commissioned by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) warned today.
The Laffer Curve Bites Ireland in the Butt
From: Cato Institute
By Daniel J. Mitchell
Cigarette butt, to be specific.
All over the world, governments impose draconian taxes on tobacco, and then they are surprised when projected revenues don’t materialize. We’ve seen this in Bulgaria and Romania, 
and we’ve seen this Laffer Curve effect in Washington, DC, and Michigan.
Even the Government Accountability Office has found big Laffer Curve effects from tobacco taxation.
And now we’re seeing the same result in Ireland.
Here are some details from an Irish newspaper.
Melbourne new hot spot for tabacco smugglers: Customs
From: Herld Sun
TOBACCO smugglers are targeting Melbourne following record shipments of “chop chop” and cigarette seizures at Sydney’s docks.
Customs warns Melbourne is the new hot spot for crime gangs shipping cigarettes from Asia and Europe.
Customs regional director of Victoria, Graham Krishof, said shipments were becoming more frequent and syndicates were using sophisticated techniques to hide the contraband.
“There have been more tobacco shipments in Melbourne following a number of detections in Sydney,” Mr Krishof said.
“We do not see big seizures in sea cargo as a daily occurrence, but when we do the shipments are getting bigger. And we are seeing very sophisticated techniques to hide things.”
Baldwin Park Resident Charged in Pot and Counterfeit Cigarette Scheme
Editor’s Note: The following story demonstrates the nationwide scope in the U.S. of counterfeit cigarette trafficking by transnational criminal organizations. Another lesson from the story is that illicit cigarette trafficking supports other crimes such as drug trafficking.
From: BaldwinParkPatch
Kit Poon, 42, of Baldwin Park is among eleven Los Angeles-area residents charged in a federal indictment unsealed today in New York.
Eleven Los Angeles-area residents, including one from Baldwin Park, are among 37 defendants charged in a federal indictment unsealed today in New York targeting a Southeast Asian marijuana and counterfeit cigarette trafficking organization that operated nationwide.
