Tag: black market

  • Hong Kong Seizes $26.6 Million in Illegal Cigs

    Hong Kong Seizes $26.6 Million in Illegal Cigs

    Credit: Timothy Donahue

    Customs officers in Hong Kong seized illegal cigarettes worth more than HK$208 million ($26.6 million) in the first 15 days after a tobacco tax increase came into force as part of last month’s budget.

    Superintendent Jeff Lau Leung-chi of the Customs Revenue Crimes Investigation Bureau said on Monday that if the tobacco had been legally imported, the contraband products would have generated about HK$147 million in tax.

    Lau attributed the increase in cigarette seizures to enhanced enforcement action at all levels to combat the trade in illegal tobacco products and the operation’s longer duration in the second phase, according to media reports.

    “We also believe that crime syndicates anticipated the possibility of an increase in tobacco tax, so they stockpiled a larger quantity of illicit cigarettes ahead of time to supply the market after the tax hike,” he said.

    The untaxed cigarettes were discovered over the second phase of a citywide operation code-named “Tempest”, which involved the arrest of 776 people between February 29 and March 14.

    During the first round of the operation, which took place between February 19 and 28, Customs detained 538 people and seized HK$62 million worth of illegal tobacco products in 10 days.

  • U.K. Group: Harsh Fines for Selling Illegal Vapes

    U.K. Group: Harsh Fines for Selling Illegal Vapes

    U.K. firms flouting the proposed ban on disposable vapes should face harsher fines to deter unscrupulous businesses, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).

    Under the government’s plans, businesses caught selling disposable vapes once the ban is in place could be given a fixed-penalty notice of £100 by their local council.

    The LGA has said the proposed fine is too low and might let businesses off the hook. However, a minority could see the fine as a price worth paying to continue selling the products, it said.

    “We’re delighted that the government is taking decisive action to ban disposable vapes,” Kaya Comer-Schwartz, the leader of Islington Council and public health spokesperson for the LGA, said, according to media reports. “However, proposed penalties will be a drop in the ocean to a minority of unscrupulous businesses looking to make a quick buck after the ban comes into place.”

    Firms flouting the proposed ban on disposable vapes should face harsher fines to deter unscrupulous businesses, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said.

    Under the government’s plans, businesses caught selling disposable vapes once the ban is in place could be given a fixed-penalty notice of £100 by their local council.

    The LGA has said the proposed fine is too low and might let businesses off the hook. A minority could see the fine as a price worth paying to continue to sell the products, it said.

    Kaya Comer-Schwartz, the leader of Islington Council and public health spokesperson for the LGA, said: “We’re delighted that the government is taking decisive action to ban disposable vapes. However, proposed penalties will be a drop in the ocean to a minority of unscrupulous businesses looking to make a quick buck after the ban comes into place.”

    According to LGA analysis, councils can impose larger penalties for other offenses, including up to £500 for littering, £500 for excessive noise from licensed premises, £200 for a business failing to put up “no smoking” signs, and up to £150 for unauthorized distribution of free leaflets on public land.

    The LGA, representing councils in England and Wales, calls for the government to amend the tobacco and vaping bill to allow councils to impose more severe fines.

  • Hong Kong Seizures Hit $288 Million in 2023

    Hong Kong Seizures Hit $288 Million in 2023

    Credit: Alven 0920

    Customs officers in Hong Kong reported that the agency had impounded more than 650 million black market cigarettes worth HK$2.25 billion ($287.8 million) last year, the largest annual cash value in more than two decades, according to media reports.

    The seized cigarettes would have generated about HK$1.54 billion in tax revenue, also a record, over the same period, according to an undisclosed source.

    Last week, authorities in Hong Kong said they were considering a further increase in tobacco duty.

    Last year’s total number of cigarettes seized was lower than the 732 million impounded in 2022, although the value was higher. Last year’s record seizure coincided with a 31 percent tobacco tax increase in February, which raised the average cost of a pack of 20 cigarettes by HK$12 to more than HK$70.

    A pack on the black market costs HK$18 to HK$38.

    The source said the confiscated tobacco products were stored in government warehouses currently, pending court proceedings or further investigations before being destroyed and buried at landfill sites.

    He added customs officials would boost efforts to combat crime syndicates that tried to take advantage of busy logistics services in the run-up to the Lunar New Year to smuggle cigarettes into the city.

  • Australian Gangs Torching Tobacco Shops

    Australian Gangs Torching Tobacco Shops

    Tobacco Reporter Archive

    Police in the Australian state of Victoria have arrested five individuals believed to be connected to the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang and a series of arson attacks on tobacco stores in Victoria.

    The arrests are a police response to the so-called tobacco wars, which have seen criminal gangs fight for control of the “significant source of income” generated by the sale of illicit tobacco.

    Victoria police Det. Insp. Graham Banks acknowledged community concern about the attacks in recent weeks and said the force was “turning the corner” with new intelligence, according to media reports.

    The arrests are related to the torching of four tobacco stores and a cafe between Christmas Day and Friday in Moe, Croydon, Altona, Altona North and Sunshine.

    On each occasion, police allege the offenders broke into the stores before setting them ablaze.

    Police report they found five vehicles believed to have been stolen when arresting the group, along with Molotov cocktails.

    “We believe they were preparing to do further attacks, so this is a substantial series of arrests,” Banks said. “This certainly impacts a syndicate that is driving this.

    “There is still a significant conflict between multiple different groups over control of a significant source of income. It will be an ongoing issue for several months, but we’re certainly turning the corner.”

  • England’s Ports Seeing Boost in Fake Vapes

    England’s Ports Seeing Boost in Fake Vapes

    The number of potentially unsafe disposable vapes being seized at English Channel ports has risen “dramatically,” according to trading standards.

    More than 300,000 of the counterfeit products had been seized during December, Kent Trading Standards said, according to the BBC.

    “A lot of our work has been focused on retail outlets, but this is now higher up the supply chain,” James Whiddett, spokesperson for KTS, said. “We’re stopping these devices, which may have about 10 times the legal limit of nicotine in them.”

    He said the current legal limit on the tank on disposable vapes is 2 mL, which is the equivalent of 600 puffs.

    “The products which we’re seeing coming into the country at the moment have 3,500 puffs on them and some have 7,000 puffs, so they are illegal and cannot be supplied to anyone,” he said.

    Whiddett said the demand for disposable vapes had risen dramatically over the last nine months.

    “The flavors, the fact that people don’t have to put their own liquids in, means it’s convenient and easy,” he said. “We’re not sure where these illegal vapes were going, and our investigations are ongoing.”

    Gillian Golden, CEO of the Independent British Vape Trade Association, said noncompliant vape products are also associated with noncompliant sales, “often to underage consumers.”

    She said the association would continue to assist trading standards over noncompliant vaping products.

  • Hong Kong Confiscates Black Market Cigarettes

    Hong Kong Confiscates Black Market Cigarettes

    Photo: YiuCheung | Adobe Stock

    Hong Kong customs officers arrested three men and confiscated HKD180 million ($23 million) in black market cigarettes, reports the South China Morning Post. This marks the second-largest smuggling bust of its kind this year.

    Three container trucks at two shipping yards near Tsing Yi Road, Tsing Yi, and Container Port Road South in Kwai Chung carrying three 40-foot cargo containers with 31 million suspected illegal cigarettes were seized. Three more containers in the same yards were seized, holding 33 million sticks of tobacco.

    If the illegal cigarettes were legally imported, the products would have generated HKD120 million in tax revenue.

    Customs has seized 640 million suspected black market cigarettes this year, an almost 50 percent increase from last year’s 427 million, according to the South China Morning Post.

    Many of the brands seized were popular overseas but uncommon locally. “Following the relaxation of anti-pandemic measures and the increase in the flow of people, the market demand for illicit cigarettes has increased,” Senior Investigator Lam Wai-kit said.

    An investigation is ongoing to trace the source and flow of the illegal products, according to Lam.