WCO Highlights World Informal Trade in Tobacco

Initiated and coordinated by the WCO, 101 Customs administrations took part in GRYPHON II, a two month operation focusing on Customs controls associated with shipments of tobacco products which began on 1 March 2016 and ended 31 April 2016.

The Operation aimed across the entire range of Customs control and clearance processes, including checks on duty free outlets, free zones, bonded warehouses, as well as express and postal shipments in relation to illicit trade in tobacco.

GRYPHON II resulted in seizure of 729 million cigarettes, 287,000 cigars, and 250 tonnes of other tobacco products seized. They included genuine branded cigarettes, counterfeit cigarettes, and cigarettes from brands categorized as ‘cheap whites’. Components of machines used to manufacture cigarettes were also seized along with bulk cash and more than 12 million excise duty stamps.

Moreover, eight illegal tobacco factories have been dismantled, over 50 criminals were arrested and several investigations are still ongoing in a vital effort to disrupt and break down criminal networks behind this trade.

The analysis of the seizures indicates that smugglers used sophisticated concealment methods by camouflaging illicit tobacco products in a variety of cover loads, including scrap metal, furniture, sneakers, timber, cement, charcoal and plastic housewares. Many of these cover loads were often of low value and were used by smugglers to ensure the highest profit margin.

Operation GRYPHON II confirmed a well-known fact that Free Trade Zones are used for illicit trade. Consignments travelling between free zones were reported to have been ‘lost’ or to have disappeared.

During Operation GRYPHON II, several shipments of cigarettes were targeted because their supply chains had no commercial logic. They were departing from Asian countries, crossing the Mediterranean region, arriving in South America and later returning to Asia.