Discover a container containing nearly 10,000 bars of imported cigarettes suspected counterfeit goods

Nearly 10,000 bars of cigarette with sign of counterfeit were held in custody at exhibit storage of Hai Phong Customs Department.

On 7/1, in the evening, according to the information from Customs Enforcement Unit (Hai Phong Customs Department), the unit has moved the container of suspected counterfeit cigarettes to exhibit storage for continuing the investigation.

The above container was transported to Hai Phong port area on 18/10/2018. In the process of verification by the Customs authority, the enterprise which is undersigned on the bill of lading refused to receivethe goods.

According to the inspection result of Customs Enforcement Unit, inside the container were cigarettes of 888 and Yee Yee brands, packaged in 998 parcels, each parcel has 10 bars and each bar of cigarettes has 20 packs, with 20 cigarettes per pack.

Cigarettes suspected counterfeit goods were discovered by Hai Phong Customs

Notably, there is no information about origin shown on the products, but they do have a barcode.

In order to have a basis for handling, the Customs Enforcement Unit requested Vietnam Quality Standards Institute (General Department of Standardization, Metrology and Quality) to coordinate for verifying the information of owner of the barcode that are printed on the products.

According to the Vietnam Institute of Quality Standards, currently, through searching on the global network of search codes and barcodes, there is no information of the codes printed on the cigarette packs that were discovered by Hai Phong Customs.

Furthermore, according to the Customs Control Team, so far, the above shipment has been overdue for implementing customs procedures, violating Customs laws and showing signs of counterfeiting. So the customs authorities have temporarily seized to continue investigation and handling in accordance with regulations.

It is known that, besides the shipment of nearly 10,000 cigarette packs with signs of counterfeiting as mentioned above, Hai Phong Customs Enforcement Team is also verifying and clarifying the 2 other containers of cigarettes transported from abroad to the Hai Phong port area, which are also overdue for implementing customs procedures.