Monthly Archives: November 2015

From: The Costa Rica Star

By Jaime Lopez

Black Market, Black Eye – By Edward R. Myers

(FSCwire Press Release) – According to Danya Mere, a seasoned investigative journalist writing in Mexico’s newspaper, Reforma, “Canada is not only famous for its maple syrup or for Niagara Falls, it is also famous for producing cigarettes sold in the international market illegally.”

This indictment comes after a group of Mexican journalists visited Canada this summer and found out that the source of a huge illicit cigarette trade and tax defrauding scheme in Mexico is in large part due to contraband cigarettes coming from Southwestern Ontario, Canada’s tobacco belt.

From: US Customs and Immigration Enforcement

LOS ANGELES — A former resident of the San Gabriel Valley who was a major distributor of counterfeit cigarettes in the Los Angeles area has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison for trafficking in counterfeit goods.

Su Qin Yang, who also used the names “Lily” and “Anita Chang,” was sentenced Tuesday to 57 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Morrow. The case is the result of a joint probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

From: Hull Daily Mail

Just after rush hour, one of Hull’s busiest roads ground to a halt in a screech of police sirens and flashing blue lights.

 To the bemusement of hundreds of pedestrians and motorists on their routine daily grind, about 50 plainclothes and uniformed officers in more than half a dozen police vans descended on Spring Bank in west Hull as part of a national criminal crackdown.

The police invasion, which centred on a block of shops between Stanley Street and Park Street, was part of Operation Trivium – a national effort to tackle foreign crooks operating in the UK.

From: CBC News

Two busts lead to charges, seizure of 880K cigarettes, Manitoba Finance says

Manitoba Finance has seized more than 880,000 contraband cigarettes following two busts this month.

The department’s investigators stopped a cargo van near West Hawk Lake this week and uncovered more than 2,000 cartons of cigarettes, as well as 2,250 “baggies,” according to the Manitoba Finance Taxation special investigations unit.

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From: The Huffington Post | Australia

Josh Butler

The Australian Border Force has seized another 10 million illegally imported cigarettes on their way into the country, adding to a mountain of black-market tobacco confiscated in recent months.

The ABF announced it had snatched 10.6 million cigarettes and seven tonnes of tobacco molasses — used in shisha smoking pipes — on its way into Australia from Singapore. The shipment, said to be the first for the ABF’s tobacco strike team, was allegedly declared as masking tape and herbal molasses.

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