Tobacco News

Many state governments are struggling to make ends meet, and many are laying off cops and teachers.
CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports that, as a result, some states are losing billions of dollars to smugglers in an illegal trade that can be more profitable than drug dealing.

On Interstate 95, at the Virginia-Maryland border, CBS News observed police closing in on a suspected smuggler. He was not running drugs, but something even more profitable.
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Cigarette smugglers, up to now mainly confined to South Africa’s border with Zimbabwe, have run into their nemesis in the form of SA Army soldiers on the Mozambique border.

In a major bust last week a 3 SA Infantry Battalion patrol in the vicinity of the Lebombo border post intercepted a gang of more than 40 suspects carrying boxes, said Capt ZG Sithole of the SA National Defence Force’s joint operations division.
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Eleven million fake ciggies have been seized by customs officers in a swoop which smashed a Chinese smuggling gang.

The haul, worth £3million on the black market, was imported from China and destined for UK black market outlets. The seizure of 11.3 million counterfeit Regal and Super-kings brands is the biggest in the North East.
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It is an introduction Northwest Knoxville convenience store operator and cigarette smuggling ringleader Hazam Ali Ahmed was wishing Tuesday he had made long ago.

Ahmed, a 38-year-old Yemen native and naturalized U.S. citizen, was one of a slew of cigarette smugglers caught up in a multistate FBI-led probe of convenience store operators who were buying what they thought were stolen untaxed smokes, reselling them and pocketing the difference between the taxed and untaxed cost. Ream more »

In the second operation of its kind this month, the Customs Department in Al Dhahirah foiled the smuggling of cigarettes hidden in a water tanker. The smuggler, who tried to import the cigarettes via Wadi Al Jizzi border checkpoint, used a similar technique as the earlier one.
He was found to have divided his 600-gallon tanker by a metal partition behind which he kept some 700 cartons of cigarettes that is an imitation which is banned to enter the Sultanate. Ream more »

Over 50 Moldovan and Ukrainian customs and border guard officers have received training on cigarette anti-smuggling techniques from the EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM). The training took place at border crossing points (BCPs) in Tudora, Moldova and Starokozache, Ukraine and was delivered by Galentin Georgiev, a police analyst from EUBAM’s Analytical and Operational Support Unit, with the assistance of Svitlana Prishchenko from EUBAM’s Capacity Building Unit. Ream more »

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers assigned to the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI) at the Stanton Street international bridge revoked the SENTRI privileges of an El Paso man after finding contraband hidden in his vehicle Monday afternoon. Ream more »

The plan to bring 10 million contraband cigarettes into Canada went up in smoke when RCMP busted what they say is the largest cigarette seizure in B.C.

Seven men, one Canadian and six Chinese, were arrested and are facing charges of smuggling and possessing unlawfully imported goods and improperly stamped tobacco after the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) seizure Oct. 29.
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The ringleader of a major tobacco and cigarette smuggling gang, who lived in Leeds, has been jailed for three years and six months. Zhi Wei Yang, a Chinese National, living on Swarcliffe Avenue, in the city, owned and ran a freight company and used a variety of aliases and company names to enable him to organise the purchase of illicit cigarettes and tobacco for distribution across the UK. Ream more »

SMUGGLERS control 83% of tobacco (cigarette) business in West Nile, Lt. Patrick Mwesigye, the revenue enforcement officer in Arua, has said.
The illicit trade has greatly affected Uganda Revenue Authority’s (URA) ability to collect taxes since only 17% of the entire tobacco business remains taxable, he added.
The high profits, difficult terrain and porous borders with the DR Congo and Sudan coupled with the thin URA personnel in the area, encourage people to engage in smuggling. Ream more »