LETA

December 10, 2001

Seglins and Kudums Preside Over Destruction Process for 25-Million Cigarettes

In the presence of Minister of Interior Mareks Seglins, Saeima Defense and Internal Affairs Commission Chairman Dzintars Kudums and other Latvian government officials, over 25 million counterfeit cigarettes were publicly destroyed today in a specially contracted furnace in Silakrogs, near Riga.

As the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) informed LETA, Kudums acknowledged that "organized crime in Latvia and the Baltic states is the main perpetrator of production and trade of counterfeit goods."

According to the Saeima Commission chair, Latvia is "one of the largest transit corridors for counterfeit products intended for the markets of western Europe." There is no doubt that these networks of contraband smuggling are linked to international organized crime groupings, that in turn are often further linked to international terrorist networks.

The joint action by the government of Latvia and CIPR marks the first destruction of such large amounts of counterfeit products in the region. "Placed end-to-end, the fake Marlboro, Benson&Hedges, and L&M cigarettes incinerated today would extend from Freedom Monument in Latvia to the Rock of Gibraltar on the southern coast of Spain," said CIPR president Peter Necarsulmer.

Necarsulmer hailed today's public event as "an exceptional illustration of mutual assistance by law enforcement and the private sector in the global war against counterfeiting." In his view, this is an example to be repeated throughout the Baltics and the region not only for cigarettes but for all faked goods.

Criminal investigations into the seizures of counterfeit tobacco destroyed today involved close cooperation between Latvia's State Security Police, Revenue Service, Customs Department and State Police as well as CIPR and trademark owners Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco (BAT).

On his part, Minister of Interior Mareks Seglins expressed satisfaction with the work of Latvia's law enforcement authorities. The persistence of these officers made it possible to bring these counterfeit goods to their rightful destruction. Seglins urged all of Latvia's law enforcement agencies to follow this example.

Also participating in the event were senior diplomatic officials from the Lithuanian, Estonian, Russian, Swedish, US, UK and EU missions, among them US Ambassador Brian Carlson and UK Ambassador Stephen Nash.

CIPR is a private-public partnership dedicated solely to advancing intellectual property rights protection and reform in the Baltic States and CIS countries.