Tobacco smuggling 'rivals what we're seeing for drugs', Customs official says

November 29, 2018

Customs New Zealand investigations manager Bruce Berry joined Breakfast this morning to discuss the tobacco black market.

Nearly two million cigarettes have been seized in what is thought to be New Zealand's largest tax evasion case involving tobacco.

An Auckland businessman was arrested last Wednesday while attempting to flee the country after a six-month investigation into cigarette smuggling.

Customs New Zealand investigations manager Bruce Berry joined TVNZ's Breakfast this morning to discuss the recent seizure and the tobacco black market.

He said the investigation began after Customs received "a very simple, small piece of information from Crimestoppers".

A crate holding some of the Chinese branded cigarettes seized by Customs New Zealand.

"Someone was concerned about cigarettes being sold in Auckland, and Customs then mounted quite an extensive intelligence surveillance operation to try and identify how the cigarettes were coming in that led us directly to this importer."

Mr Berry explained that the businessman smuggled in the cigarettes through the use of "a legitimate company that he had".

"We set up a number of operational responses to that, covert activity was undertaken and that led us to exactly how it was being done. We were deliberately targeting the importer in this case because targeting the importer disrupts the distribution of the cigarettes".

He said surveillance also helped identify "a number of distribution chains that [the businessman] was utilizing" and that the people involved are being actively pursued.

"The importer himself is going to be facing a number of charges in this. This is quite a serious, systematic fraud and we should be quite clear – this is criminal fraud.

Cigarettes seized by Customs New Zealand can be seen sitting on crates.

"This was a deliberate fraud brought about by greed. This has all the hallmarks of organised crime. This is not a small, personal use quantity – these are millions of cigarettes that are solely imported for distribution."

Mr Berry said the high cost for cigarettes wasn't to blame, adding that it is "an international phenomenon that's around the world".

"Organised crime is about money, so they don't mind what commodity they're dealing. The types of concealments we've seen for tobacco rivals what we're seeing for drugs.

"Tobacco smuggling has been around since trading began. Smuggling is smuggling. We will go after the smugglers; we will go after their illicit assets; and we will restrain and take away the profit."

Mr Berry doesn't believe the seizure of the 1.8 million cigarettes is the tip of the iceberg, however.

"We've seen a steady rise in tobacco smuggling cases. We've got seven [cases] before the courts in the last 12 months, but that's in line with our intelligence and what we're doing in the targeting space, so we believe we’re onto this."

SHARE ME

More Stories