Port officials have seized a record $1 billion in counterfeit goods coming into L.A. this year, and in January they seized one of the largest busts in the nation’s history.
More than $500 million worth of counterfeit tobacco products, including Camel cigarettes and Marlboro brand cigarettes, were seized at the Port of Oakland.
More than half a billion dollars worth of counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco products have been seized at U.S. ports this holiday season, up from $225 million in November. In all, about $3.34 billion worth of tobacco products, including tobacco, and counterfeit cigarettes and other tobacco products have been seized this year so far.
At the Port of Oakland, the seizure of the most popular tobacco brand, TobaccoRoad, was announced the same day, while the Port of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Port of Long Beach, Calif., seized 3.3 tonnes of counterfeit tobacco.
The seizures come on the heels of the most significant tobacco bust in U.S. history, when the U.S. Coast Guard seized more than $300 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco products in 2007. That was more than double the $150 million seizure in 2007, up from just over $145 million in 2006.
“The counterfeit tobacco trade, from the most popular brand, Camel, to the least popular, ‘Eddie’s’, to all of the less profitable brands, has come to an all-time high this holiday season, and is set to continue,” said John McGean, director of international investigations with Customs and Border Protection.
“This is the first time in the history of the counterfeit tobacco trade that we have been able to take a complete product line through a single port,” he added.
The ports had not seen a sustained period of this kind of volume in their history, and it’s rare to have a product seized in a single port for such a large quantity of counterfeit tobacco products, said an official from the Port of Oakland.
“It shows that this is a problem that goes across state lines,” a Customs and Border Protection official said of the seizure.
The seizures are part of a larger investigation run by the federal Homeland Security Investigation unit, which acts as the nation
