illicit-trade-wco-2013

It has been pointed out that in some cases it is not
even possible to buy cheap whites legally on the domestic
market of the manufacturing country. They are
therefore smuggled via similar routes and patterns
used by smugglers of traditional branded cigarettes.
The most common brand of cheap whites is “Jin Ling”.
It is produced in Russia (Baltic Tobacco Factory,
Kaliningrad), Ukraine and Moldova. In 2013 there
were 241 seizures of “Jin Ling”. Another popular
cheap whites brand is “Raquel” (whose manufacturer
is based in Cyprus, while there seem to be additional
production sites in several other countries).
Case studies and country highlights
Extra-inspective smuggling 1
The extra-inspective smuggling of tobacco products
consists of introducing cigarettes onto Italian territory
by avoiding border-crossings controlled by Customs,
and essentially introducing them by sea aboard
speedboats coming directly from the Adriatic coast of
the states of the former Yugoslavia.
This phenomenon seemed to have ended in the year
2000, when the level of danger and aggression of
smuggling organisations generated a strong military
response which was able to shut it down completely.
However, in 2013 the Italian Guardia di Finanza
carried out specific and complex investigations which
evidenced a possible resurfacing of this phenomenon.
The investigations highlighted the existence of a criminal
association comprised of Montenegrin and
Italian citizens engaged in international cigarette
smuggling using powerful boats leaving from the
Montenegrin island of Sveti Nikola to land on the
Adriatic coast.
In particular, eight responsible individuals were
arrested on the spot and 1.3 tons of cigarettes as well
as four powerful boats were seized. Evaded duties
were assessed at EUR 230,000. The subsequent
investigations and actions coordinated by the local
Anti-mafia District Directorate included 40 orders of
preventative detention for criminal association in
executing a cigarette smuggling scheme.
Smuggling of contraband cigarettes using
luxury cars 2
In 2013, 15 offenders were caught attempting to smuggle
contraband cigarettes into Singapore using luxury
cars. The offenders concealed the contraband cigarettes
in modified compartments of their luxury cars assuming
that luxury vehicles would less likely be
checked by enforcement officers at the checkpoints. In
one of these cases, a Singaporean man was caught attempting
to smuggle 318 cartons of contraband cigarettes
in a Singapore-registered Mercedes Benz at
Woodlands checkpoint. The cigarettes were concealed
in a modified compartment of the car. The duty and
GST 3 evaded amounted to more than US $24,000.
“Ants-moving-home” 4
The illicit trade in cigarettes became increasingly sophisticated
with infiltration of the supply chain networks.
Instead of keeping large local warehouses to
stock up illicit cigarettes, syndicates applied the “justin-time”
concept for fast delivery of smuggled cigarettes
to different parts across Hong Kong. In effect,
illicit cigarettes of different brands were first pre-sorted
according to advance orders. Upon being smuggled
into Hong Kong, they were immediately disseminated
by local vehicle fleets to distributors in different regions
of Hong Kong for sale on the black market.
To evade detection by Customs, syndicates usually
mix-loaded illicit cigarettes among general cargoes,
or used false compartment in containers for concealment.
For passenger couriers, they mainly adopted
the “ants-moving-home” tactic to bring in illicit cigarettes
by mix-loading with personal belongings or
body-packing.
1
Information provided by Guardia di Finanza, Italy.
2
Information provided by Singapore Customs.
3
GST is a broad-based consumption tax levied on the import of goods (collected by Singapore Customs). GST is the equivalent
of Value Added Tax (VAT).
4
Information provided by Customs and Excise Department, Hong Kong, China.
84