City postman accused of selling cut-price cigarettes

A retailer in Galway City has lodged a complaint to the Customs division of the Revenue Commissioners about a postman who is allegedly selling cut-price cigarettes while he delivers the post.
The newsagent who made the complaint has experienced a drop of up to 40 per cent in his takings in tobacco sales since the part-time postman started flogging the half-priced packs while on his rounds in the area.
The practice has become a major problem for retailers, who believe they lost nearly half a million in revenue to the black market in 2008. The cigarettes are sourced in Eastern Europe, where a pack costs just 74c, or are counterfeit brands made in the Far East.
Some of Ireland’s leading brands are being copied by counterfeiters, complete with forged Irish tax stamp and dual language health warning.
They are then sold on for €3-€4, half the price of a pack sold over the counter here.
There have been numerous examples of illegal sales on the black market in the last few years. Pizza delivery staff in Dublin, an insurance salesman in Limerick, a real estate agent in the Westmeath and Offaly areas, have all been reported to customs officials for selling tobacco. It has also become increasingly prevalent on market days in large towns.
Retailers against Smuggling (RAS) is a lobby group that has been set up to curb the practice which is funded by tobacco companies and representing retailers and major chains such as SuperValu and Topaz garages. They claim up to 10,000 jobs could be lost through the phenomenon. Overall cigarette sales are down 30 per cent, but they say there is no corresponding fall in the number of smokers. Some 30 per cent of traditional newsagent revenues come from cigarette sales.
Spokesman Paddy Donohoe says smuggling tobacco is extremely lucrative with little or no risk attached. One 40ft container of cigarettes from Ukraine could result in profits of amost €2m.
While penalties for drugs smuggling attract jail terms, there has not been a single custodial sentence for smuggling tobacco in Ireland yet, with just minimal fines for those caught, he said.
The Government has increased the excise on cigarettes by more than €1 in the last three budgets, which is fuelling the illegal trade in Ireland, which has the highest price in the EU for cigarettes.
Research conducted by RAS found that in the first six months of this year, there were 51 seizures of smuggled cigarettes. In all, 29 of those seizures involved foreign nationals.
There have been just seven prosecutions for those caught selling counterfeit cigarettes between January and June – six of them foreign shopkeepers or traders. Overall cigarette sales are down 30 per cent, but they say there is no corresponding fall in the number of smokers.

Ryanair To Sell Smoke Free Cigarettes Onboard

Europe’s largest low-cost carrier, Ryanair, will allow smokers to get their nicotine fix on board by inhaling ‘smokeless’ cigarettes, the airline has announced.
The new range of ‘clean’ cigarettes, which do not have to be lit but provide a nicotine hit for smokers, are available on all Ryanair flights, the airline said.
Ryanair has said that smokers no longer need to worry about long flights without a cigarette as it launches new range of smokeless cigarettes to ensure passengers get their required nicotine hit without breaking the law by lighting up in the cabin.
Smoking has been illegal since the 1990s on all commercial flights, but keen to cater for passenger demands; Ryanair has introduced Similar Smokeless Cigarettes, which look and feel like a real cigarette and deliver a small amount of nicotine through inhalation.
The smoke-free cigarettes are available to passengers aged over 18, while a pack of ten costs six euros.

Trio in bribery case ordered to pay $13m in restitution

The former chairman of a tobacco manufacturer and two people from another company who were earlier jailed for bribery and fraud over cigarette smuggling activities, were today ordered to pay more than $13 million in restitution to the tobacco company.
District Court Judge Joseph Yau earlier sentenced Lu Dayong, 62, the former chairman of Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company Limited, to four and a half years in prison in his absence. Lu had fled the city and failed to turn up for the trial in June last year. The court issued a warrant for his arrest.
In February, the judge had jailed Ko Kit, 40, a director of Hang Chun Trade Development Limited, for three and a half years. Chan Kai-san, 41, a sales manager for the company, was jailed for two years.
Judge Yau today allowed the prosecution's application and ordered Lu and Ko to pay $7.55 million in restitution to Nanyang Brothers. The judge also ordered Lu, Ko and Chan to pay the company a restitution of over $5.73 million.
The judge also allowed the prosecution's application for court costs against Lu.
Lu and Ko were earlier convicted of one count of conspiracy for an agent to accept an advantage from a cigarette trader, Golden Leaf International Development (Hong Kong) Limited. Lu, Ko and Chan were found guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud Nanyang Brothers.
Cigarettes smuggled into Mainland
Nanyang Brothers, a subsidiary of publicly listed Shanghai Industrial Holdings Limited, manufactured the Double Happiness brand of cigarettes in Hong Kong. As then-chairman of the company, Lu approved Hang Chun and Golden Leaf as overseas distributors. Nanyang Brothers subsequently sold $48 million worth of cigarettes to Hang Chun.
Lu and Ko received $7.55 million in illegal commissions from two directors and shareholders of Golden Leaf between January 2003 and February 2004 as rewards for causing Nanyang Brothers to sell Double Happiness cigarettes worth $42 million to Golden Leaf.
The cigarettes sold to Hang Chun and Golden Leaf were prohibited from sales in the Mainland, but had been smuggled to the Mainland through places including the Philippines and Vietnam.

One smoker’s habit dies hard

My favorite cigarette of the day is right before I go to bed. Usually around 12:30 a.m. or 1 a.m. I’ll take multiple long and thoughtful drags off my Newport as I think about my day as it comes to an end. I smoke it right down to the filter because at over $5 a pack I cannot afford to be wasteful. I then flick it into the bushes and retire to my bedroom for the night.
I really enjoy smoking. The nasty habit provides me with the opportunity to step away for a few minutes and reflect, talk to a friend or just get outside, but I realize that, with every hit off my menthol cigarette, I am also making myself potentially very ill.
One study released on Aug. 25 by the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation found that tobacco use kills six million people annually, worldwide; some 400,000 here in the U.S. alone. No surprise when one considers that there are 11 known human carcinogens found in cigarette smoke.
These numbers are astonishing, and yet I still continue to pull smoke from cigarettes and fill my lungs. However, change is coming.
A few weeks ago, I decided to pick a quitting date and really try to give up cigarettes. Sept. 25 is the big day for me but before I shelve my lighter and Newports for good, I wanted to discuss some things that have fascinated me as a smoker.
In a typical day, I will easily smoke 15 cigarettes. If I go out for the night with some friends, it’s no problem to burn through an entire pack plus a few extras. I spend roughly $30 a week on cigarettes. That’s $120 a month and almost $1,500 a year on a product that is known to cause cancer, heart failure and emphysema, just to name a few.
According to Americanheart.org, an estimated 26.2 million men and 20.9 million women are smokers in the U.S. This works out to be about one fifth of the adult population.
I have been smoking for nearly three years. That is over $4,000 spent on cigarettes. I could have bought a car with that money or gone on a vacation in Europe. So why do so many people continue to smoke? I believe that most people who start smoking have no idea just how addicting this habit can become.
According to the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 86.8 percent of students who smoke nicotine at least once daily are chemically dependent under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder’s health standards.
Taken from Americanheart.org, “[Nicotine] causes changes in the brain that make people want to use it more and more. In addition, addictive drugs cause unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. The good feelings that result when an addictive drug is present — and the bad feelings when it’s absent — make breaking any addiction very difficult. Nicotine addiction has historically been one of the hardest addictions to break.”
After experiencing nicotine addiction first-hand, I wonder why I ever even started. I picked up the habit my junior year of high school, which was about the same time I was heavily into classic rock music, like Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. As a musician I have always idealized their music and radical life styles.
Thinking back, I probably thought by adopting some of their lifestyle choices, like smoking, I too would become a rock star one day. Unfortunately, smoking cigarettes does not make someone a guitar god or musical genius. So I am left only with an empty pack of smokes and a dusty guitar.
Luckily, for those smokers who wish to quit, there is hope. There are many resources that smokers can turn to “kick the habit.” Websites like BecomeAnex.org, SmokeFree.gov and WhyQuit.com offer advice, forums and extensive information about quitting.
Obviously, I am not a doctor, but there are also patches, inhalers and nicotine gum products that may aid you in your journey to become smoke-free.
Everyone should have their own reasons when they choose to quit. For me, I am simply tired of being out of breath when I ascend a flight of stairs, smelling like smoke all the time, spending a small fortune on cigarettes and blackening my lungs beyond recognition.
I’m going to miss my after meal cigarettes, the morning smokes, my cigarette after a really boring class and of course my nighttime smoke break. However, I am sure that after a few difficult weeks of nicotine withdrawal I’ll find the increased blood flow, lung capacity and thicker wallet all worth the quitting experience.

STF seize illegally imported cigarettes

STF personnel launched a pre-dawn raid on a secret hideout of underworld gangsters in the Imbulgoda, Pahala Imbulgoda area, and seized a large stock of illegally imported cigarettes valued over eight million rupees.
Police spokesman Senior DIG Nimal Mediwake said following information received the STF raided a secret location of a leading underworld gangster and seized a consignment of foreign cigarettes.
The consignment was worth at least eight million rupees and it was hidden in an underground of a house located in Pahala Imbulgoda.

Leicester estate targeted in smoking blitz

A Leicester estate with one of the highest smoking rates in the country is to be targeted in a major drive to help people quit the habit.The plan is to persuade more than 5,500 smokers in New Parks to stub out their cigarettes by Christmas.About 40.5% of adults on the estate smoke – nearly twice the national average of about 22%.
From tomorrow, volunteers will be knocking on doors, visiting community groups and going into offices to try to encourage smokers to quit.They have been trained in "30-second intervention" – a method of trying to persuade people to do something without lecturing them.Volunteers will also be pounding the streets armed with leaflets and details on where smokers can get help to quit. A specially decked-out bus packed with information, help and advisers will also tour the neighbourhood.Called Lose the Smoker in You, the campaign is the first of its kind in the country.New Parks was chosen for the launch after drug company Pfizer, which has developed and paid for the campaign, invited people across the country to say why their neighbourhood deserved to benefit first from the project. New Parks beat two other finalists, in Lincolnshire and Liverpool.Louise Ross, NHS Leicester City's Stop! smoking manager, put forward New Parks.
She said: "It seemed the perfect place.
"It has the one of the highest rates of smoking in the country."A recent survey showed that more than half the smokers on the estate wanted to stop."Research by anti-smoking charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) revealed men and women in deprived social groups were much more likely to smoke than those who were better off.
New Parks is in the west of the city – an area in which one in three children have parents who are unemployed and struggling to make ends meet, according to the charity End Child Poverty.Ms Ross said the campaign would enable stop smoking advisers to be more "creative" in their attempts to get people to give up."I, and my staff, will do all we can to make sure it works," she said."We don't have a particular number of quitters in mind to judge success of the project.
"We want to see what works well."Smokers will also be given freebies, such as pedometers and water bottles, to encourage them to live more healthily.Pfizer would not say how much it was spending on the campaign because the information was said to be "commercially sensitive".The company manufactures the stop-smoking drug Champix, but will not be promoting it during the campaign.Television's Street Doctor Dr Jonty Heaversedge will be helping kick-off the campaign at a roadshow in the Salvation Army car park, in Aikman Avenue, tomorrow.It takes place from 9am until 5pm. Dr Jonty will be there from 10am until 2pm.

Police ask for help in tracing stolen tobacco

ABOUT £40,000 worth of stolen cigarettes could be circulating in South Wales after they were stolen from a lorry.
Police have asked the public to report anyone who offers them tobacco or cigarettes in suspicious circumstances.
Detectives were alerted to the theft on Monday when a large consignment of cigarettes and tobacco failed to be delivered to shops and outlets across South Wales.
South Wales Police said: “A Palmer and Harvey Transport delivery lorry, registration GN54 EWZ, carrying the consignment, left a depot at Christchurch Road, Baglan Industrial Estate, at approximately 5.45am on Monday.
“It was later found parked up in a nearby lay-by.
“We believe the vehicle travelled from Port Talbot to the Sarn area of Bridgend between 6am and 7am on Monday morning.
“During this time, a large quantity of cigarettes and tobacco of various major brands, valued in excess of £40,000, has been removed from the lorry, which is a cream and red DAF 90 with Palmer and Harvey Transport written on the side.”
A 41-year-old man has been arrested and charged with theft and is due to appear before Neath magistrates.
The incident was reported to police by the Palmer and Harvey Transport company management.
Detective Inspector Jason Davies said: “We are appealing to anyone who knows where the stolen property is to come forward.”

15 on trial over bogus cigarette export in S China

GUANGZHOU: Fifteen people went on trial Wednesday in south China for their involvement in the export of a huge amount of bogus cigarettes to foreign countries.
They were accused of providing services of storage, transfers, booking cargo space and customs clearance for people who had been exporting the bogus cigarettes since 2005, the Intermediate People's Court in Dongguan, Guangdong Province heard.
Huang Conglin and Ding Ping, two of the suspects, were involved in the transfer of bogus cigarettes worth 156 million yuan (US$22.8 million) between December 2005 and June 2008. The other 13 people were involved in exports worth between 598,500 yuan and 152 million yuan.
The bogus cigarettes were made in Yunxiao and Zhangpu counties in Fujian Province and sent to storehouses in Dongguan and Shenzhen cities in Guangdong, before they were moved on to Britan, Germany, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and other countries.
The suspects face charges of marketing fake commodities, a crime carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The hearing is ongoing.

Branding on cigarette packs misleads smokers

Researchers at the University of Nottingham surveyed 1,300 people, and found that customers to generally believe that products branded "smooth", "silver" or "gold" were healthier and easier to give up. They said that when people were shown plain packs, the false beliefs disappeared.
Under the European Union rules, it is banned to claim that some cigarettes are safer than others.
During the study, the researchers showed the subjects pairs of cigarette packs, and asked them to compare what they were like, or what they assumed they would be like, in terms of taste, tar levels, health risk, attractiveness.
The participants were also asked which of the cigarettes they thought would be to easy to give up, and how attractive they would be to someone choosing to smoke for the first time.
The results from 800 adult smokers and 500 teenagers, all in the UK, showed that lighter-coloured packaging led people into believing that the cigarettes had lower tar content, or were generally less harmful.
Among the eight brands they were shown, over 50 per cent adults and teenagers reported that those labelled "smooth" were less harmful than the regular variety.
Fifty-three per cent adults rated Marlboro packs with a gold label as having a lower health risk, and 31 per cent said that they were easier to quit, when compared with the Marlboro packs with a red logo.
When shown packs where the branding had been removed, false beliefs about the risk of harm or addiction dropped significantly.
Since 2002 it has been illegal under EU legislation for manufacturers to use trademarks, text or any sign to suggest that one tobacco product is less harmful than another.
Banned phrases include "low tar", "light" and "mild".
In a study paper, published in the European Journal of Public Health, the researchers said that the regulations were failing to remove "potentially misleading" information from cigarettes.
“The truth is that all cigarettes are equally hazardous, regardless of what colour the pack is or what words appear on it,” the BBC quoted Prof. David Hammond, from the Department of Health Studies and Gerontology at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, as saying.
“These tactics are giving consumers a false sense of reassurance that simply does not exist,” the professor added.
Christopher Ogden, chief executive of the Tobacco Manufacturers'' Association, said the group did not believe proposals for plain packaging were based on sound public policy or compelling evidence.
"Plain packaging would prevent tobacco manufacturers from providing consumers with information about products that are legally available in retail outlets. Adult smokers use packaging to identify, obtain information about and choose tobacco products, easily and without confusion," he said.
He further said that the evidence in support of mandatory plain packaging was "speculative".
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said that the study’s findings indicate that all tobacco products should be sold in plain packaging.
"That would remove false beliefs about different brands and communicate the message that all cigarettes are dangerous. This matter has been discussed by Parliament and there is now a perfect opportunity to include a requirement for plain packaging of tobacco products in the Health Bill," Arnott added.

$2,500 fine for undeclared cigarettes and alcohol

A Malaysian national was fined $2,500 or in default two months behind bars by the Bandar Seri Begawan Magistrate's Court yesterday after he pleaded guilty to having in possession several uncustomed cigarettes and cans and bottles of alcoholic drinks.

Liew Kim Foo, 28, was found keeping 13 cartons of 'Gudang Garam Surya' cigarette, five cartons of LA light cigarettes, 24 cans of Tiger beer, 48 cans of Carlsberg beer, two bottles of Vat 69, a bottle of 'Kao Liang Chew', a bottle of Chivas Regal and five bottles of 'Smirnoff' Vodka at his rented house in Kampong Mata-Mata.

The defendant who works for a workshop admitted to owning the uncustomed goods estimated to be worth $345.

The defendant paid the fine.

Wisconsin cigarette tax goes up Tuesday

Wisconsin's cigarette tax will go up 75 cents per pack on Tuesday, making it the fifth-highest tax in the country and the most expensive among neighboring states.
Securing the higher tax was part of a one-two punch secured by anti-smoking advocates this year. The other was convincing the Legislature to pass a statewide anti-smoking ban that takes effect on July 5, 2010.
Those who fought for the ban and the tax increase say it provides those looking to quit, like Maurice "Moe" Bird of Waterloo, with more motivation.
Bird, a 41-year-old auto mechanic, used to spend about $30 a week on cigarettes before he quit about two years ago. But a few months later he started smoking cigars, which now cost him about $15 a week.
Bird said he's going to use the new tax increase as a reason to stop smoking cigars cold turkey."I basically can't afford it," he said of his habit.
The latest increase, taking the state tax to $2.52 per pack, comes less than two years after a $1 per pack increase in 2008. In April, federal cigarette taxes went up 62 cents to $1.01 per pack.
Taxes on other tobacco products are also going up Tuesday in Wisconsin. The chewing tobacco tax goes up to 100 percent of the manufacturer's wholesale price and the tax on other tobacco products, including cigars and pipe tobacco, goes from 50 percent to 71 percent of the wholesale price. The amount of the tax will vary depending on the price of each product: the cheaper the tobacco or cigar, the less the tax. However, the tax on cigars is capped at no more than 50 cents per cigar.
"There's a lot of folks who attempted to quit when the dollar increase went up and they might not have been successful," said Maureen Busalacchi, executive director of SmokeFree Wisconsin. "This gives them another impetus to try. We know the more you attempt to quit, the more successful you will be."
Don Marx, a 65-year-old retired elementary school gym teacher, said he quit smoking in 2006 after developing throat cancer. Once he quit, Marx decided to put the $120 a month he had been spending on cigarettes into a separate savings account. He's tapped the fund four times since to take golf trips to Myrtle Beach.
Marx said he supports the tax increase and hopes it motivates others to follow his example.
"If anything it's going to hurt the kids who are starting to smoke," he said.
Nationwide, the average price for a pack of cigarettes is $5.12, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Wisconsin's cigarette taxes will go from 16th to fifth highest on Tuesday.
While health advocates are heralding the increase, it presents a problem for retailers in businesses along the borders where cigarette taxes are much lower in neighboring states. The per-pack tax is just 98 cents in Illinois, $1.36 in Iowa, $1.50 in Minnesota and $2 in Michigan.
Groups representing Wisconsin grocery and convenience stores, along with gas stations, estimate that the tax increase will cut 25 percent to 40 percent of their non-fuel sales. Ironically, many of the stores are replacing the revenue lost from tobacco sales with healthier alternatives like salads and fresh foods.
"There's not 25 to 40 percent of the people quitting smoking, obviously," said Steve Loehr, vice president of operations for Kwik Trip, a convenience store chain with about 355 stores in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. "They're finding other places to buy cigarettes."
Stores along Wisconsin's borders are even more vulnerable to a loss in sales, officials with the groups representing roughly 3,000 stores said. The price difference on a carton of cigarettes in Iowa or Minnesota can be as much as $10 or $15, Loehr said.
The only smokers left are the die-hards who will continue buying no matter how high the taxes, said Julie Yahnke, owner of a Quik Stop in Holmen which is near the Minnesota border. She said she only sells about a carton a day; most buyers in her shop get a pack or two at a time.
Grocery stores are swimming upstream in the competition over cheaper cigarettes across state lines, tribal smoke shops and over the Internet, said Brandon Scholz, president of the Wisconsin Grocers Association. His group represents about 1,000 grocery and convenience stores in the state.
Those who pushed for the higher taxes say it's all about saving lives.
Cigarette smoking results in an estimated 443,000 premature deaths each year, and costs the national economy $193 billion in health care expenses and lost time from work, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking is a major contributor to heart disease, cancer and lung disease.
The American Cancer Society estimates Wisconsin's new tax increase will stop 33,000 kids from starting to smoke and motivate 17,000 adults to quit.
After the $1 increase in January 2008, calls to the state's Tobacco Quit Line more than tripled.
Busalacchi said her anti-smoking group was trying to publicize resources that are available to help smokers quit.
"If you're a tobacco user, take advantage of it. Use it as an impetus to quit," she said of the tax increase. "Get a jump on New Year's. You're going to improve your health dramatically."
And while health advocates hope the higher tax motivates more people to quit lighting up, Gov. Jim Doyle and the Democratic Legislature are counting on the extra $335 million over the next two years to help with the state's bottom line.
For the current two-year budget, cigarette and tobacco product taxes are nearly 6 percent of all taxes collected at $1.5 billion. That is fourth highest behind income, sales and corporate taxes.
All money raised from cigarette and tobacco taxes goes into the state's general fund, which is then tapped to pay the majority of expenses related to running state government.