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Monthly Archives: November 2011
€4.4m drugs and fake cigs seized in huge garda raids
From: Herald.ie
By Ken Foy, Crime correspondent
Gardai have disrupted the operations of a notorious Dublin criminal who has been supplying a major gang flooding the south east of the country with drugs.
A massive surveillance operation that has led to the seizure of €4.4m worth of drugs and thousands of euro worth of contraband cigarettes has struck a major blow against the gang.
Today the Herald can reveal:
A 33-year-old Donaghmede drugs trafficker who lives in Co Meath has been providing the gang with their drugs
Over 140,000 cigarettes seized at Dublin Airport
From: TheJournal.ie
REVENUE’S CUSTOMS Service claims its officers intercepted a major cigarette smuggling operation at Dublin Airport last night.
Officers searching 23 passengers who arrived on a flight from Chisinau, Moldova via Budapest, Hungary seized 140,800 cigarettes.
The brands involved in the seizure include L&M, Winston, Lucky Strike and Marlboro.
The Revenue says that the cigarettes have a retail value of €59,840, with the potential loss to the Exchequer of €57,728.
The Customs Service is appealing to anyone who may have information regarding the sale or smuggling of illegal cigarettes to contact them on 1800 295 295.
Four Busted in Cigarette Smuggling Ring
From: NACS Online
GREENVILLE, SC – Federal and state law enforcement officials in Rhode Island arrested four men earlier this week in a cigarette smuggling ring that officials estimate cost the state more than $5.7 million in cigarette tax revenue, WSPA reports.
Rhode Island police announced the arrests yesterday after executing search warrants in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Virginia and South Carolina. The four are charged with selling unstamped cigarettes and importing cigarettes with an effort to evade taxes.
Officials said they uncovered the cigarettes at 15 Rhode Island stores.
The latest arrests are part of an ongoing, three-year investigation of untaxed cigarettes that uncovered a massive ring that spans from Virginia to South Carolina.
According to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Virginia, the suspects acquired the cigarettes in Virginia and transported them to South Carolina for distribution. Over the past three years, “members of the conspiracy have paid undercover law enforcement officers approximately $20 million for untaxed cigarettes,” said Brian McGinn, a spokesperson for the office.
Chinese police raid cigarette counterfeiters, arresting 78
BEIJING (Xinhua) — Chinese police have broken up 122 criminal dens and arrested 78 suspects in a cross-provincial raid on a cigarette counterfeiting ring, the Ministry of Public Security said Monday.
About 80,000 cartons of bogus cigarettes and 10,000 units of counterfeit logos and cigarette cases were confiscated, according to a statement.
Police also seized four pieces of manufacturing equipment and 25 vehicles used in the operation, the statement said.
The raid involved more than 1,500 officers from nine provincial areas, and a well-knit underground network for cigarette counterfeiting and distribution, it added.
Under the illegal activity, bogus cigarettes were usually produced and stored in city outskirts and disguised as normal goods for delivery, with fake cargo and ownership details.
Most transactions were done on the Internet or face to face, which was hard to trace, the statement said.
The ring constituted a closely linked chain of counterfeiting groups who would coordinate on production in order to meet orders, it said.
They counterfeited both high-end cigarettes and ordinary brands.
Due to their poor quality, fake cigarettes not only harm the tobacco industry but also people’s health. The police will continue mobilizing resources nationwide to crack down on counterfeiters, the ministry said.
The recent move on cigarette counterfeiters is part of a high-profile national campaign that started last November to crack down on the violation of intellectual property rights and the production and distribution of fraudulent products.
Mass. man accused of running cigarette smuggling ring in RI
From: AP
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Massachusetts man has been arrested on charges of operating a contraband cigarette Smuggling ring in Rhode Island using cigarettes from southern states that have low cigarette taxes.
Federal court records show 35-year-old Mohamad Mohamad, of Cambridge, was arrested Tuesday. He is charged with possession of fraudulent state tax stamps, money laundering, distributing contraband cigarettes and other charges.
An affidavit says Mohamad traveled to North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia to get cigarettes to sell in Rhode Island, where the tax is $3.46 per pack.
Three jailed for fake cigarette haul
From: Staffordshire Newsletter (UK)
THREE convicted black marketeers have been jailed following the seizure of more than four million contraband cigarettes at a farm in Staffordshire.
The haul was made by customs officers in a raid on Old House Farm, near Stafford.
They found a lorry containing boxes of fags smuggled in to the UK and destined for the black market.
No duty or VAT had been paid and HM Revenue would have been cheated out of almost £1 million, Stafford crown court heard.
Agencies snuff $33M tobacco ring spanning four states; 9 from Upstate facing indictments
From: GoUpstate.com
By Luke Connell
Sixteen people — nine included as part of an Upstate ring — are facing indictments after a massive investigation into contraband cigarette operations, enterprises that saw tentacles reaching into at least four states and buying more than $33 million in cigarettes.
A 96-page indictment unsealed this week reads like the script from a Hollywood thriller, describing men paying undercover officers with “bags” full of hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as luxury SUVs, and in one case, a 10-ounce gold bar ensconced in a small, red velvet bag. It also asserts that some of the accused laundered money through dozens of businesses and real estate purchases as part of a network that purportedly touched London and India.
Feds Bust $20 Million Illegal Tobacco Operation in Upstate
From: WSPA TV
By: Graeme Moore & Anderson Independent Mail
Federal officials have disrupted a ring of conspirators who illegally purchased and sold untaxed cigarettes totaling millions of dollars in an operation that spans from Virginia to South Carolina, according to federal prosecutors.
Over the past couple of days, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have rounded up several Upstate men and charged them with numerous conspiracy charges.
According to a spokesman for the US Attorneys in the Western District of Virginia, the suspects “acquired untaxed cigarettes” in Virginia and transported them to South Carolina for distribution.
Organized crime ring dismantled after series of busts in Richmond
From: BCLocalNews.com (Canada)
By Martin van den Hemel – Richmond Review
More than 18 months after making the first of three major seizures in Richmond, police announced Tuesday that they’d derailed a suspected Asian organized crime ring and arrested eight people.
The arrests are linked to the seizures of two massive shipments of counterfeit cigarettes in April and October of last year, along with thousands of kilos of a liquid chemical precursor for the manufacture of ecstasy.
The investigation began in 2009 after Canada Border Services Agency intercepted a sea container at the Port of Vancouver which contained unstamped counterfeit cigarettes earmarked for Toronto.
8 arrested in counterfeit cigarette case
Editor’s Note: The following article is yet another demonstration of the close linkage between the counterfeit cigarette trade and drug trafficking.
From: Toronto Star
Curtis Rush, Police Reporter
Eight people have been arrested and warrants have been issued for two others in what the RCMP describes as an organized crime group that shipped counterfeit cigarettes and drug-making chemicals from Asia to Canada.
The investigation began two years ago when border officers intercepted a sea container in Vancouver which contained unstamped and counterfeit cigarettes destined for Toronto.
Over the next two years, the Canada Border Services Agency, RCMP and other agencies worked to identify the individuals responsible.
