Worldwide Cooperation From Customs Agencies Nets Seizure of Over $93 Million in Tobacco
Customs agencies around the world recently completed a joint operation aimed at illicit tobacco trade that resulted in the seizure of 593 million cigarettes, 77 tons of smoking tobacco, and 31 tons of raw tobacco, according to an Oct. 13 press release from the World Customs Organization. In what the WCO is billing as “the first global Customs operation” focused on tobacco, 93 customs administrations participated in Operation GRYPHON between October 2013 and March 2014. Worldwide, they arrested over 100 people, and are still working on 35 investigations.
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According to the WCO, the operation revealed that smugglers used very sophisticated concealment methods by camouflaging illicit tobacco products in a variety of cover loads, including fertilizer, glassware, clothing, charcoal, transformers, foodstuffs, timber, and legal cigarettes. Free trade zones played important role, with shipments arriving in these zones subsequently repacked into other containers, enabling the illicit cigarettes to be ‘lost’ or disappear. Smugglers also used containers with double identities, or duplicate container numbers. They used the identities of importers and exporters with good reputations, as such companies are less likely to raise the suspicions of Customs officials, said the WCO.