Monthly Archives: August 2016

From: stuff.co.nz

BLAIR ENSOR AND SAM SHERWOOD

A man armed with an axe robbed two Christchurch dairies on Monday.

A lucrative black market for cigarettes is fuelling an increase in armed robberies, with criminals targeting dairies and stealing tobacco products to order.

Some dairy owners are toying with the idea of pulling cigarettes from their shelves, but the decision is not an easy one with tobacco products making up a large amount of their business.

Read Complete Article

From: Chicago Tribune

Nick Swedberg, Daily Southtown

A Cook County judge set bail Monday at $5,000 for a Chicago man accused of carrying more than 40 cartons of contraband cigarettes in a stolen car stopped in Oak Lawn.

Hamza Ishkirat is charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of cigarettes without a tax stamp, criminal trespassing and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to court records. He appeared in Bridgeview bond court on Monday.

Read Complete Article

From: Spanish News Today

Contraband cigarette sales blamed for falling tax revenue in Spain

Coughers are contributing less to Spanish government coffers

***

At the same time, there is a worry that the tax collection data do not reflect the real situation regarding smoking in Spain. This is because as taxes and prices have risen, so too has the attractiveness of contraband tobacco on which duty has not been paid, and over the last year there has been a noticeable increase in the amount of illegal tobacco production detected in Spain. Coughers are contributing less to Spanish government coffers

From: International Policy Digest

Eliza King

***

Beyond the financial losses, the money flowing to cigarette smugglers has real implications for public safety. Profits made from illegal tobacco have been used to fund terrorist groups, and small-time criminals in Europe have used cigarette peddling to raise money for devastating attacks linked to ISIS. As the Australian Crime Commission has pointed out, criminal organizations in general rely on cigarette smuggling as a profitable, lower-risk source of revenue compared to hard drugs and other contraband. As if to drive the point home, a corruption scandal that came to light earlier this year uncovered kickbacks paid by these criminal groups to the Department of Agriculture and other border officials to help them get their chop-chop through. There are also health concerns, as cigarettes produced illegally overseas don’t trouble themselves with respecting product standards in force in Australia.

From: Fredericton Police Force

The Fredericton Police Force, in partnership with the Department of Justice and Public Safety seized more than 201,000 illegal cigarettes during a routine road check on Highway 2 in Fredericton.

The illegal cigarettes were seized on Thursday, August 25, 2016, as a result of a vehicle stop during the checkpoint, and a subsequent search warrant.

The provincial tax value of the seized cigarettes is estimated at approximately $45,000.