From: Foreign Affairs
Source: European Anti-Fraud Office
More than 42 million “cheap white” and counterfeit cigarettes set to debark on the European Union (EU) shores were stopped from entering the black market thanks to information and expertise provided by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). Within the course of one month, three separate operations involving law enforcement authorities from Belgium, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain prevented smugglers from snatching a profit of about 8.4 million euros by averting customs duties and other taxes.
The first operation took place at the end of November 2016 when, as a result of information provided by OLAF and with the cooperation of Belgian, German and Dutch customs authorities, 10.4 million cigarettes were seized. These were counterfeit American Legend cigarettes that had found their way to Europe from Vietnam. The cargo was caught in the Netherlands, on its way to the Germany.
In December, 9 million “cheap white” cigarettes labelled Deluxe where concealed under a load of wheelchairs and uncovered with the help of Spanish customs at the port of Barcelona. That same month, at the Greek port of Piraeus, four containers filled with rattan chairs aimed to hide approximately 23 million cigarettes (9.95 million Royal Blue and 12.99 million De Santis branded cigarettes), also shipped from Vietnam. In a broad definition, such “cheap white” cigarettes belong to brands sold illegally in the EU, by producers having no legal distribution network and who do not pay any taxes in the EU.
