Customs nets 11.3 million illegal smokes

  • 2001-06-14
  • Jorgen Johansson
RIGA - On June 6 customs officials seized 11.3 million illegal Benson and Hedges cigarettes from entering the country in a cargo of boilers, the largest catch in Latvian history. The total value of the confiscated smokes is estimated to be 120,000 lats ($195,000).

Dita Klavina, a spokeswoman for Latvia's customs service, said the cargo was detected through close cooperation with customs officials in Belgium.

"The cargo arrived in Riga Free Port from Antwerp, and it was declared as water boilers, but after a closer look we found the cigarettes behind the boilers," Klavina said.

Smuggling cigarettes into Latvia is not new.

In May, State Revenue Service agents seized imported fabric bales that contained 14.4 million Super King and Regal cigarettes. In April and May, three separate batches of smuggled cigarettes were stopped in Liepaja. In the first case, 1.3 million Regal cigarettes were hidden in sawed timber. Then, four million No. 1 cigarettes were found stuffed in plastic tubes and in the third case, 439,000 West brand cigarettes were found hidden in the ceiling of a trailer.

In January, some 4.4 million Prince cigarettes were stopped in Riga when the perpetrators tried to bring them into the country hidden among packaging boards. This year's total of seized cigarettes has already reached 14 million.

Klavina said these recent amounts of bootlegged cigarettes can not be explained by an increase in smuggled goods, but by two other factors.

"Firstly, Latvia is involved in the international smuggling network, and has become one of the transit countries for smuggled cigarettes," Klavina said. "Secondly, the Latvian customs service is cooperating with other countries' custom services."

The most popular illegal goods smuggled into Latvia are drugs, oil products, cigarettes, alcohol, foodstuffs, especially meat, and pirated clothing, according to a list provided to The Baltic Times by Klavina.

"The state loses some $10 million every year on contraband and counterfeit cigarettes," Vladimir Camans, managing director for the cigarette manufacturer House of Prince said. "This money could be spent on other things."

However, new techniques adopted by the customs service are also helping to detect bootlegging.

Klavina said customs officers are getting more thorough when they search vehicles and travelers before entering the country.

"We are paying more attention when looking for smuggled goods," she said. "We focus more on luggage and various hidden compartments of all kinds of vehicles."

Still, smuggled cigarettes are not the only problem police are dealing with here. Last year, in November, a police shakedown led to the closing of a factory producing counterfeit cigarettes. Several tons of tobacco and equipment were confiscated.

Though police are employing complicated dragnets to catch smugglers, even someone on the street can determine whether their pack of cigarettes is counterfeit.

Andris Kraujins, director for Philip Morris Latvia, said it's easy. "Just peel off the excise tax sticker from the pack," he said. "If it comes off easily, as it should, then the cigarettes are genuine, but if it doesn't, then most likely they are counterfeit."