BNS

December 10, 2001

Contraband Cigarette Destruction Demonstrates Rule of Law in Latvia

Latvian government officials, foreign diplomats and business representatives attending today's counterfeit cigarette incineration event acknowledged that the action is a signal to the rest of the world that Latvia can ensure rule of law through its anti-contraband efforts.

State Revenue Service General Director Andrejs Sonciks addressed those present to witness the incineration, saying that "Latvia desires and is able to support the genuine manufacturers, while it does not want to support the others, who pay no taxes." "With this public action Latvia sends an unmistakable signal that it stands for legal business as opposed to the illegal business of the gray and black markets," added Sonciks.

On his part, Minister of Interior Mareks Seglins announced that "one of the government's priorities of the Finance and Interior Ministries is the fight against contraband." "Internal affairs must be prioritized the same way the EU and NATO are," he stressed.

With regard to the contributions of the State Police, Revenue Service and Customs to the fight against contraband, Seglins pointed out that the amount of confiscated cigarettes - over 25 million total - proves that "neither the State Police nor the Revenue Service are as weak or poor as they are sometimes depicted." He also indicated that "this amount is only one small part of the millions generated by the illegal contraband business."

US Ambassador Brian Carlson, who addressed the attendees in Latvian, explained that "unregulated and unlicensed copies have a negative impact on governments, businesses and consumers." "Counterfeiters steal openly from Latvia, taking away its vitally important revenues, defrauding consumers of quality products and businesses of their rightfully earned profits," said Carlson.

"Trademark counterfeiters are criminals. Traffickers of counterfeit goods are criminals. The police and customs officials working to bring these criminals to justice are heroes," said the Ambassador.

British Ambassador Stephen Nash on his part thanked the Latvian government for its cooperation on the anti-contraband front, pointing out "that we are anxiously awaiting further developments leading to criminal prosecutions in these cases."

The Ambassador recalled recent seizures of contraband cigarette cargoes in Ireland and Northern Ireland, one of which was found on a ship bound from Riga. He pointed out that an agreement between the Ministries of Interior of Latvia and Great Britain provides a basis for the fight against such crimes.

He stressed that in the fight against contraband and corruption it is essential to "increase transparency", affirming the readiness of his country to help Latvia in these areas. "We must continue our work to defend international standards of intellectual property protection," said the British Ambassador.

On his part Saeima Defense and Internal Affairs Chairman Dzintars Kudums said that "Latvia's duty as a state is to protect and help protect its own as well as other nations' trademarks, so that we may also be well-known in the world." "I wish to affirm that Latvia will not become a transit state for these contraband goods and will not cause losses to other countries," said the Saeima deputy.

The CIPR action Monday marks the beginning of the destruction of over 25 million contraband cigarettes, which could last from four to seven days. The cigarettes will be burned by the carton, as well as shredded for subsequent incineration in a special furnace.

The Minister of Interior, high-ranking police officials, business representatives, as well as the US and UK ambassadors participated in the event.

As reported previously, the CIPR event was held to incinerate three separate cargoes of counterfeit cigarettes under criminal investigation by the authorities. The largest of them was a load of almost 5.5 million counterfeit Benson&Hedges brand cigarettes that the criminals attempted to smuggle across the border inside the tanks of water boilers. The other shipments contained counterfeits of the same cigarette trademark, as well as fake Marlboro and L&M brand cigarettes.

Resulting from successful cooperation with the trademark owners, this incineration marks a significantly simplified process for law enforcement authorities charged with destroying the seized cigarettes and other fake products. All three criminal investigations have been concluded with no identified suspects. In such cases the decision to destroy the counterfeits is often procedurally complicated.