http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/category/crime.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.buffalonews.com/437/story/721534.html http://tobacco.org/news/286733.html An 18-year-old Town of Niagara man was granted youthful-offender status Wednesday for his role in a cigarette scam . . . A co-defendant, John T. Billings Jr., 24, of 92nd Street, Niagara Falls, admitted to fourth-degree grand larceny but failed to appear for sentencing . . .????He and the teenager convinced a man Sept. 14 that they could sell him a large cache of untaxed smokes from the Tuscarora Indian Reservation, but took his money and delivered no cigarettes. Buffalo News Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25730607-2702,00.html?from=public_rss http://tobacco.org/news/286731.html ??RIGHT in the middle of Australia's biggest city, you can walk into a shop and buy an illegal packet of under-the-counter cigarettes for $7.????Apart from being much cheaper than the mainstream brands, which sell for about $13 a packet, they don't have any of those confronting health warnings.????The ready availability of illegal cigarettes, which are understood to be in stock near many housing commission estates around the country, runs counter to a blizzard of government policies designed to discourage smoking. These include a NSW government ban on smoking in cars carrying children that started this week. . . .??????Inner-Sydney resident Les Shearman has been trying for years to expose the illegal cigarette trade because of his concern about its impact on his friends' health. He believes the ready availability of cheap cigarettes is a major factor in their excessive smoking.????The Weekend Australian accompanied Mr Shearman while he purchased an illegal packet from Broadway Tobacco, located on one of the city's busiest thoroughfares. It took only seconds for him to purchase the pack from the woman behind the counter. No questions. No fuss.????"They are incredibly easy to get," he said. . . .????????"If it is so easy for the likes of you and me to find a shop selling illegal cigarettes, why is it so difficult for the Australian Federal Police to find them?" Professor Chapman said. The Australian Australia Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090702/NEWS01/707029916 http://tobacco.org/news/286707.html A New York man appeared in federal court in that state Wednesday to answer charges that he lied about his role in the sale of untaxed cigarettes at the Blue Stilly Smoke Shop in Arlington.????Arthur "Sugar" Montour, 37, turned himself in to federal authorities in response to a Seattle grand jury indictment charging that he made multiple false statements when he denied having sold his Seneca brand cigarettes to the Blue Stilly, which operated on Stillaguamish tribal land for about five years. He was released and is scheduled to appear in a federal courtroom in Washington on July 10.????Montour did not respond to messages left for him at the offices of his company, Native Wholesale Supply, located about 30 miles south of Buffalo, N.Y., on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation. Native Wholesale Supply sells Seneca brand cigarettes.????The indictment is the latest in a series of federal actions in connection with the Blue Stilly Smoke Shop. The shop operated without a state cigarette compact between 2003 and 2007. It was owned and operated by Eddie Goodridge Jr., who was until recently the Stillaguamish Tribe's executive director. His parents, Ed and Linda Goodridge, shared ownership of the shop. Ed Goodridge was a longtime tribal leader. Everett Herald frank@heraldnet.com ( Krista J. Kapralos, Herald Writer) Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009408449_webcigarettes01m.html http://tobacco.org/news/286692.html ??A federal grand jury in Seattle has indicted a New York tobacco wholesaler in a recent crackdown on a smoke shop near Arlington run by former Stillaguamish tribal leaders who were selling millions of cartons of untaxed cigarettes.????A federal grand jury in Seattle has indicted a New York State tobacco wholesaler in a recent crackdown on a smoke shop near Arlington run by former Stillaguamish tribal leaders who were selling millions of cartons of untaxed cigarettes.????The indictment against Arthur "Sugar" Montour, 37, of Perrysburg, N.Y., alleges that he lied in sworn statements about selling cigarettes to the smoke shop in proceedings seeking forfeiture of more than $50,000 paid to him by the smoke shop.????In March, three former Stillaguamish tribal council members, Edward Goodridge Sr., 60, Edward Goodridge Jr., 33, and Sara Lee Schroedl, 40, were sentenced to federal prison for making millions of dollars dealing untaxed smokes out of the Blue Stilly Smoke Shop. Seattle Times Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/07/02/cigarette_companies_kicked_out_of_tobacco_meeting/ http://tobacco.org/news/286667.html A U.N.-backed meeting on tobacco smuggling has barred cigarette companies from attending for fear they will try to influence delegates, participants said Thursday.????More than 130 countries agreed late Wednesday to expel the tobacco industry from the rest of the weeklong meeting of parties to the 2005 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which the U.S. has signed but yet to ratify.????Governments are considering a range of measures to crack down on contraband cigarettes, including a ban on Internet sale of tobacco products and a crackdown on smuggling through duty free zones.????"We (the governments) decided not to permit the tobacco industry to enter the meeting because they could interfere in the negotiations," said Justino Regalado Pineda, the head of Mexico's National Office for Tobacco Control.????"We have to protect people from their commercial interest to poison the population." . . .??????"This action sends a clear message from customs, health and law enforcement officials that it's not business as usual for the tobacco companies," the group's international policy director Kathy Mulvey said.?? Boston Globe Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.cnw.ca/en/releases/archive/June2009/01/c9660.html http://tobacco.org/news/286649.html Imperial Tobacco Canada today stated that??Canada has lost its leadership in tobacco control thanks to provincial and??federal governments ignoring the growing crisis of illegal tobacco sales.???? In a speech delivered today at the Canadian Club of Montreal, Benjamin J.??Kemball, President and Chief Executive Officer of Imperial Tobacco Canada said??"As simplistic as it sounds, part of the solution is to acknowledge that we??have a problem. Governments have to work in earnest to find effective??solutions that go beyond police operations. A good first step would be to??bring everyone involved to the table, from the health communities to the First??Nations communities. Someone needs to be put in charge."?? . . .???????? Imperial Tobacco Canada believes that effective and enforceable tobacco??control regulations are necessary due to the health risks associated with??tobacco. The real issue today is the rampant growth of illegal cigarettes that??are falling into the hands of young people at pocket money prices; that have??no government mandated warnings or other health information; that are??manufactured in unlawful factories with no government oversight and no??reporting of ingredients or product testing.???? Imperial Tobacco Canada believes that something should and can be done??now. The road to solving the growth of illegal tobacco sales begins with the??Prime Minister mandating a high-level ministerial appointee to take charge of??the problem, enforce the current laws, control raw material and machinery.??However, none of this will work if the First Nation communities are not??invited to be at the table to help shape the solutions. Canada Newswire Canada Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1121906.html http://tobacco.org/news/286624.html ??Maria Charlton took a drag on a Kool cigarette just outside the Broward County Courthouse Tuesday, savoring one of her last smokes ever. When the state tax on cigarettes jumps a buck to $1.34 a pack Wednesday, Charlton is going cold turkey.????''I'm not paying a whole more dollar for cigarettes,'' snapped Charlton, 45, of Pembroke Pines. ``It's not worth it to me.''????Smokers like Charlton are feeling picked on lately. The 294 percent increase in the state excise tax follows a 159 percent increase in the federal cigarette tax, from about 39 cents to $1.01 a pack, on April 1. That's in addition to some Big Tobacco companies raising prices by more than 40 cents a pack earlier this year. Now, with the latest hike, smokers will see some of their favorite name-brand smokes costing $5 to $6 or more a pack.????Smokers can no longer dodge the tax by buying cigarettes on an Indian reservation, either. Under the new law, nontribe members buying smokes on an Indian reservation have to pay the full tax.?? Miami Herald pdanner@MiamiHerald.com (PATRICK DANNER) Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.nbc15online.com/news/local/story/Florida-cigarette-tax-may-benefit-Alabama/VEP_nlcA1USFOf3DOcL8VA.cspx http://tobacco.org/news/286616.html Starting Wednesday smokers in Florida will be paying one dollar more for a pack of cigarettes. The price hike is aimed at making Floridians healthier, but there could be a side effect in Alabama. As NBC 15's Andrea Ramey tells us, Alabama may become a refuge for Florida smokers.????Simple math explains why. If you pay $5 for a pack in Alabama and $6 in Florida, over the course of a year if you smoke a pack a day you'd save more than $350. Local gas stations are banking on that savings.????Selling tobacco is big business for Wilcox Chevron owner Mike Foropoulos, a business that will likely grow as nearby Florida raises its prices on cigarettes.????"I think my business be better here," said Foropoulos. "The difference in price $1 per pack is a lot of money."?? WPMI-TV NBC 15 /mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=265965@wpmi.dayport.com Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/story/1546655.html http://tobacco.org/news/286613.html ??"I'm not paying a whole more dollar for cigarettes," snapped Charlton, 45, of Pembroke Pines. "It's not worth it to me."????Smokers like Charlton are feeling picked on lately. The 294 percent increase in the state excise tax follows a 159 percent increase in the federal cigarette tax, from about 39 cents to $1.01 a pack, on April 1. That's in addition to some Big Tobacco companies raising prices by more than 40 cents a pack earlier this year. Now, with the latest hike, smokers will see some of their favorite name-brand smokes costing $5 to $6 or more a pack.????Smokers can no longer dodge the tax by buying cigarettes on an Indian reservation, either. Under the new law, nontribe members buying smokes on an Indian reservation have to pay the full tax. Bradenton Herald /personas?plckUserId=@Nyx.Key ( HERALD STAFF and WIRES) Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/tobacco/articles/entry/1441/ http://tobacco.org/news/286578.html ??For centuries, blue-turbaned nomadic Tuareg tribesmen have led caravans of camels across the expanses of the Sahara. Laden with millet and cloth from Africa’s West Coast, the caravans traveled unmarked paths to trade for salt and dates in Timbuktu, across the sand plains of Niger, and into the mountain oasis of the Algerian south.????Smugglers take the same routes today — driving SUVs along paved roads or with guidance from the Tuareg and satellite phones — to move weapons, drugs, and, increasingly, humans — through the Sahara for transport across the Mediterranean Sea. The paths are no longer known as the Salt Roads of the Tuareg, but as the “Marlboro Connection,” named after the most lucrative contraband along this 2,000-mile corridor.????Among those who control this underground trade is al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an Algeria-based terrorist organization widely believed to have been backed by Osama Bin Laden. Descended from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (known by its French acronym, GSPC) the group has hundreds of members and is blamed for a bloody campaign of bombings, murders, and kidnappings across North Africa and Europe. The lead smuggler, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, 37, is blamed for the 2003 kidnappings of 32 European tourists and the 2006 murder of 13 Algerian customs officials. “They are a significant threat,” says Lorenzo Vidino, author of Al Qaeda in Europe. “Of all Islamic terrorist groups, they have the most extensive and sophisticated network in Europe… And among their activities, smuggling is particularly important.”??????Military officials and scholars say cigarette smuggling, in fact, has provided the bulk of financing for AQIM . . .??????Al-Qaeda’s North Africa affiliate isn’t alone. After crackdowns on fundraising following the 9/11 attacks, terrorist groups worldwide have increasingly turned to criminal rackets, officials say. And smuggling cigarettes — either untaxed or counterfeit — has proved a particularly lucrative, low-risk way to fund operations.????Hezbollah, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda are involved in smuggling cigarettes; so are the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Terrorist financing through cigarette smuggling is “huge,” says Louise Shelley, a transnational crime expert at George Mason University and an adviser to the World Economic Forum on illicit trade. Center for Public Integrity Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/tobacco/articles/entry/1442/ http://tobacco.org/news/286569.html ??As government sanctions restrict traditional sources of terrorist financing, Pakistani militant groups increasingly rely on proceeds from counterfeit cigarette production and smuggling, intelligence sources say. Although income figures are rough estimates at best, profits from the illicit cigarette trade account for as much as 20 percent of funding for these militant groups, second only to heroin production, according to terrorism experts in Pakistan. "Taliban and other militant groups do not have to do much," says Ikram Sehgal, a senior defense and security analyst who heads SMS Security, Pakistan's leading private security company. "They simply receive taxes on a regular basis from owners of illegal and legal cigarette factories and later for the safe passage they provide to the convoys."????Sahib Ayub Afridi: local philanthropist, convicted drug smuggler, and top cigarette counterfeiter in Pakistan.The Afridi case is part of a broader trend of terrorism groups relying on contraband to finance their activities, experts say. Even if efforts to cut the region's booming heroin production are successful -- an unlikely prospect -- the lucrative tobacco trade suggests how hard it will be to stanch funding to terrorists and insurgents in areas far from government control. The world's longest-running civil wars are fueled by contraband according to a 2002 study by Stanford University's James Fearon. Cocaine smuggling has largely propelled FARC's 40-year insurgency in Colombia. Diamonds have funded civil wars in Sierra Leone and Angola. Opium has led to drawn-out conflicts in Afghanistan and Burma.????In the badlands of the Afghan-Pakistan border, the challenges are particularly daunting. Center for Public Integrity Pakistan Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/tobacco/articles/entry/1440/ http://tobacco.org/news/286567.html ????The raid had reaffirmed a precedent for an industry accustomed to minimal accountability. “The seizure was a media show,” said José Ortiz, CEO of Tabacalera del Este (Tabesa), the top cigarette factory in Paraguay. Tabesa is reportedly owned by Horacio Manuel Cartes, a high-powered businessman whose holdings include a soccer club. The company’s cigarettes are routinely seized from smugglers in Argentina and Brazil, according to customs officials in those countries. But the cigarettes in Pindoty Porã were legal, Ortiz said, as long as local cigarette taxes had been paid and the sticks were on the Paraguayan side of the border.????José Ortiz, CEO of top Paraguayan tobacco manufacturer Tabesa. “We don’t know where our cigarettes are consumed, and it’s not our problem,” he says. Marina Walker Guevara/ICIJThe investigation remains open and customs may ultimately fine the wholesaler for attempted smuggling. But the case illustrates the virtually impossible task of cracking down on crime and contraband in a country where law often takes a back seat to power and cash. Paraguay ranked near the bottom — 138th among 180 countries — of Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perception Index.????The tobacco industry in Paraguay is virtually unregulated. Government agencies involved in its oversight cannot even seem to agree on the number of factories operating in the country. The minister of taxation, Gerónimo Bellasai, told ICIJ that tax evasion by tobacco factories is “very high,” but in March his team was still trying to figure out how to track company sales. A basic step to improve traceability, officials say, is to update the country’s arcane cigarette tax stamp system. Currently tax stamps — square pieces of white paper that are easily photocopied — are affixed on master cases of 10,000 cigarettes rather than on individual packs. But even this can be hard to accomplish. “When there’s a lot of money on the other side, the tax authority always loses,” Bellasai said. . . .??????The chief of the Brazilian federal police in Guaíra, Érico Saconato, says there is little political will in his country to fight smuggling. Marina Walker Guevara/ICIJBrazilian and Argentine customs and police officials say they are frustrated by Paraguay’s lack of commitment to stop cigarette smuggling. But they also acknowledge faults in their own governments’ enforcement. . . .??????Meanwhile, Paraguayan cigarette manufacturers are earning stunning profits while denying any involvement in smuggling or counterfeiting (Brazilian law enforcement officials, however, link the Paraguayan factories directly to the illicit trade). Those who pursue civil charges against factory owners face endless judicial battles. British American Tobacco has repeatedly sued a tobacco company owned by former presidential candidate Osvaldo Domínguez Dibb for counterfeiting several of its brands. Some lawsuits have slogged though courtrooms for as long as 11 years.????Tabesa’s CEO Ortiz was blunt when asked about Paraguay’s quid pro quo: “We give them money,” he said of politicians during election time. “And all we ask is to be left alone.”?? Center for Public Integrity Paraguay Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/tobacco/articles/entry/1438/ http://tobacco.org/news/286562.html garettes -- at $1.05 per pack -- making the country a bonanza for smugglers, whether by glider or more mundane pathways on the ground. Cars and trucks filled with Ukrainian-made Marlboros and Viceroys get waved through border checkpoints by customs guards who seem more than eager to accommodate, for a price. Loads also move by bus and train, bound for other European countries where high taxes make packs cost as much as $5 (Germany) or $10 (United Kingdom).????The backbone of this underground commerce -- the acquisition of the cigarettes themselves -- is by far the easiest part of the entire operation. The world's four leading multinational tobacco companies, Philip Morris International, Japan Tobacco International (JTI), Imperial Tobacco, and British American Tobacco (BAT), have produced billions of excess cigarettes in Ukraine, fueling a teeming black market that reaches across the European Union. Today, Ukraine is rivaled only by Russia as the top source of non-counterfeit brand cigarettes smuggled to Europe, EU officials say.????The booming trade in tobacco smuggling has major consequences, say industry experts. The growing traffic pushes huge supplies of cheap, untaxed, and unregulated cigarettes into the rest of Europe, undercutting otherwise successful attempts to curtail smoking. Worse, officials say, the trade is boosting organized crime gangs, who find the soft penalties and big profits hard to resist. . . .????Attracted by high smoking rates and the potential for rapid returns on investments, multinational tobacco companies rushed to acquire the state-run cigarette factories after the Soviet regime collapsed in 1991. Today, the big four tobacco companies -- Philip Morris, BAT, JTI, and Imperial -- control 99 percent of the Ukrainian cigarette market. Center for Public Integrity Europe Ukraine Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/tobacco/articles/entry/1439/ http://tobacco.org/news/286561.html ??Last September, Guaíra made headlines across Brazil when 15 people were murdered at a makeshift riverside warehouse. The killings were the result of a vendetta among drug smugglers and, officials here say, they weren’t all that unusual. Just 150 miles north from the notorious Tri-Border Area, where Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina meet, Guaíra is today a major weapons and drugs corridor in the region. But no product, police say, is more widely smuggled through this city, and more profitable to smugglers, than Paraguayan cigarettes.????Dozens of motor boats crammed with tobacco cross the Paraná River daily from the neighboring Paraguayan city of Salto del Guairá. The smugglers feed an illicit trade that injects billions of cigarettes into Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and other large Brazilian cities, where the cheap, untaxed Paraguayan sticks account for 20 percent of the entire cigarette market. Guaíra sits at the heart of this trade, a strategic gateway and a place where many residents — up to half its population, locals say — rely directly or indirectly on smuggling for their livelihood. A few reap millions from the illicit trade. Guaíra’s most famous criminal son, Roque Fabiano Silveira, made a fortune and a name, trafficking Paraguayan cigarettes thousands of miles away. . . .??????The tale of Roque Silveira is emblematic of the criminal nature and global reach of the teeming Paraguayan cigarette industry, one that experts and law enforcement officials say is, largely, set up for and devoted to transnational smuggling. Fifteen years ago cigarette manufacturing was minimal in Paraguay, one of South America’s poorest countries and a place notorious for corruption and trading in counterfeit goods. Today Paraguay, a landlocked, California-sized country, ranks among the world’s top producers of contraband cigarettes, responsible for 10 percent of the world’s contraband tobacco, experts estimate.????Paraguay’s factories churned out 68 billion cigarettes in 2006 Center for Public Integrity Brazil Paraguay Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2009-07-02/news/south-florida-cigarette-smuggling-funds-terrorism/ http://tobacco.org/news/286559.html In less than five minutes, the brutal attack left Quinsey and Azimkar dead, the two pizza deliverymen and a pair of guards clinging to life, and the historic 1998 peace agreement between Irish Catholics and Protestants imperiled.????The bullets rang out thousands of miles away, but investigators now believe the assault had its origin in an anonymous cargo ship docked at a bustling South Florida port.????A gray-haired 57-year-old Cutler Bay man with no criminal history named Roman Vidal sold millions of cigarettes that had been smuggled to Dublin criminals who funded the terrorist group that killed Quinsey and Azimkar, investigators say. The charges are just the latest link between black-market U.S. smokes and violent terrorist groups around the world.????It's the first cigarette smuggling case in Florida with explicit ties to a terrorist organization, but at least four major rings around the country have been busted in the past seven years with proven connections to Hezbollah, the Iraqi Kurdistan Workers Party, and North Korean weapons runners. A four-month-long New Times review of court filings and interviews with investigators reveals exactly why smuggling smokes may be the best racket for America's enemies.?? . . .??????For the average smoker, those under-the-table, tax-free packs might seem like a bargain. But as the recent history of cigarette smuggling vividly illustrates, when you buy black-market smokes, you never know whose paycheck you're signing. . . .????????In 1999, Garcia was called to Atlantic City to help Lou Calvarese — a hefty agent with a long undercover FBI résumé. Calvarese introduced him to May and Charles Liu, a Los Angeles Chinese-American couple with an incredible operation.????Though most smuggling operations involve actual commercial cigarettes, the Lius contracted with four factories in China that produced quality knockoffs of Marlboros, Camels, and other major brands. . . .??????That meeting was just the beginning of a massive six-year operation. Garcia would eventually infiltrate the highest levels of the Lius' international smuggling network, a staggering chain involving nearly 100 people in China, the United States, and Canada. Garcia eventually learned that the operation had ties to North Korean weapons smugglers.???? Broward-Palm Beach New Times China Canada Ireland Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT