Counterfeit cigarettes go up in smoke

THOUSANDS of counterfeit cigarettes and illegal tobacco products have been seized in a series of raids in Grimsby.

A total of 5,280 illegal Richman cigarettes, 40 counterfeit Lambert & Butler cigarettes and 950 grammes of counterfeit Gold Leaf hand-rolling tobacco were recovered during the latest swoop at a house in Hainton Avenue, which followed several months of investigation and a number of successful raids over the summer.

Nearly 2,000 illegal cigarettes, 5.7 grammes of illegal tobacco and £375 in cash was seized from a house in Coventry Avenue, including a brand called Avalon which was believed to be new to the area.

Another significant haul was recovered from a property in Heneage Road, while illegal cigarettes were found being sold in a shop in the Freeman Street area of the town.

The raids bring the total number of illegal smoking products seized by North East Lincolnshire Council since December 2009 to 77,398 cigarettes and 46 kilogrammes of tobacco.

Mick Burnett, deputy council leader and portfolio holder for health and wellbeing, said: “The availability of this cheap, illegal tobacco keeps smoking rates high amongst adults and children in North East Lincolnshire, which has clear and devastating impact on the health of our community.

“These seizures send a clear message to those operating illegally that this will not be tolerated.”

David Bolton, the council’s portfolio holder for community safety and neighbourhoods, added: “Illegal cigarettes are dangerous – they are untested and untaxed.

“Those who trade in them are only interested in making a profit; they don’t care what’s in these products, or what effect they have on those who smoke them. We all need to join together to stop this illegal trade.”

Apartment fire suspect known for drug use

Most of Shannon Marie Mills’ neighbors said they knew little about the woman accused of starting a fire at their apartment complex Sunday morning, but those who spoke to her said Mills lived in another world — a medicated one.

Police arrested Mills on Monday in connection with a blaze that displaced nearly 100 of her neighbors after she confessed to taking sedatives and sparking a cigarette before dozing off early Sunday morning.

Police believe her actions caused the blaze that gutted an apartment complex at 1212 E. Dallas Ave. The fire destroyed one building and damaged another, leaving dozens homeless.

Mills told investigators she took two Ambien pills, two Tylenol PM capsules and some Nyquil before going to bed, court documents state. She awoke only after gagging from the heavy black smoke in her apartment.

But instead of calling police or fire departments, Mills left the door to her apartment open and simply walked away, police said. An officer later found her covered in soot near the 500 block of East Business 83.

“She suffered from insomnia,” said Eloy Lucio, who lived across from Mills. “She would take a lot of pills.”

Lucio said his wife and he were one of the few residents who spoke to Mills. Their conversations were often impersonal and she mostly talked to him about the landlord and being behind on her rent, he said.

But there was another side of Mills that bothered Lucio.

“It seemed like she was always in another world and that scared me,” the 42-year-old said.

He recalled several occasions in which Mills appeared to be hallucinating.

“She told me she saw men hanging from the moon, trees levitating and that her dashboard and tires were melting,” he said. “There was one occasion where she was really high and she thought someone had killed (her boyfriend) and chopped him up into little pieces. And she started crying and crying.

“‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you need to go rest,’” Lucio recalled telling her that time. “‘You might get hurt. Go inside and rest and sleep it off.’”

Tenant Rick Liscano, 31, said he often heard neighbors complain about Mills, who allegedly knocked on their doors at odd hours of the night in search of cigarettes.

“She did a lot of drugs,” Liscano said. “I just find it weird that everyone in the building knew she was on sleeping pills.”

A McAllen municipal judge arraigned Shannon Mills, 26, on two counts of deadly conduct, a class A misdemeanor, Monday. Her bond was set at $10,000.

If convicted, she could face up to a year in jail and a fine not to exceed $4,000.

Gang ringleader from Islington jailed for cigarette fraud

Michael Pitt, 47, from Duncan Street, Islington, was sentenced along with five other accomplices following an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) which found that some members of the gang were purchasing the cigarettes in duty free shops at airports across the UK using fake boarding cards or one-way open tickets.

They would either exit the airport through domestic arrival channels or travel internally on a domestic flight to continue the fraud at other duty free shops. Pitt was also charged with fraud for producing and supplying the counterfeit boarding cards used in the scam.

Two other gang members would then distribute the duty free Hilton cigarettes and were observed leaving Pitt’s house with bags suspected to contain the goods, while a woman facilitated the fraud by selling the majority of the cigarettes to gang members in her role as a sales assistant at Manchester Airport’s duty free shop.

The duty evaded between February 2009 and May 2010 was £545,933.

Martin Brown, assistant director of criminal investigation for HMRC, said: “Our officers uncovered a sophisticated and highly organised fraud by this gang led by Michael Pitt, whose motivation was pure greed.

“The effect of this type of criminal activity on legitimate retailers can be devastating and billions of pounds are lost in duty each year, money which should be available for public services.”

Pitt pleaded guilty to being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion or attempted evasion of duty on tobacco as well as fraud. He has previously served a custodial sentence for other duty evasion and fraud charges.

He was sentenced at the Hove Trial Centre last week along with five others. Two other gang members are due to appear in October.

No more cigarettes for smoking Malaysian orangutan

A captive orangutan often spotted smoking cigarettes given to her by zoo visitors is being forced to kick the habit, a Malaysian wildlife official said Monday.
Government authorities seized the adult ape named Shirley from a state-run zoo in Malaysia's southern Johor state last week after she and several other animals there were deemed to be living in poor conditions.
Shirley is now being quarantined at another zoo in a neighboring state and is expected to be sent to a Malaysian wildlife center on Borneo island within weeks.
Melaka Zoo Director Ahmad Azhar Mohammed said Shirley is not being provided with any more cigarettes because "smoking is not normal behavior for orangutans."
"I would say she is not addicted ... but she might have formed a habit after mimicking human beings who were smoking around her," Ahmad told The Associated Press.
Shirley was so far displaying a regular appetite for food and no obvious signs of depression or illness, Ahmad said. Results from her blood tests and other detailed health examinations were not yet available.
Nature Alert, a British-based activist group, wrote to Malaysian officials about Shirley earlier this year, saying conservationists who visited the Johor zoo often saw people throwing lit cigarettes to her in a pit-like enclosure.
The group said Shirley seemed to suffer severe mood swings, sometimes looking drowsy and on other occasions appearing "very agitated" without a cigarette.
Authorities last week also reportedly seized a tiger and a baby elephant that was kept chained at the Johor zoo.
It is not clear when Shirley started smoking. Officials have estimated she is around 20 years old. Orangutans, which are native to rainforests in Borneo and Indonesia's Sumatra island, can live up to about 60 years in captivity.
Other countries such as South Africa and Russia have also reported cases of primates learning to smoke after zoo visitors ignored warnings and tossed cigarettes into the cages of chimpanzees.

Smoking a Cigarette, Making a Film

“Don’t be fooled by the smoke,” James Benning told a sold-out audience at the Toronto International Film Festival screening of his latest film “Twenty Cigarettes.” A collection of living portraits, in which 20 smokers, all friends of his, face the camera for the time it takes to consume a cigarette, it is both an homage to Andy Warhol’s fabled screen tests and a quintessential film for Mr. Benning, 68, a giant of American experimental cinema whose conceptually minimalist works tend to open up vast spaces for reflection.

Observation and duration are central to his method. The 2004 landscape films “Thirteen Lakes” and “Ten Skies,” with their stark, self-explanatory titles, are composed entirely of 10-minute static shots, each the length of a 16-millimeter film reel. In his 2007 film “RR,” a monumental study of railroads in America, each shot lasts as long as it takes for a passing train to cross the frame.
“Twenty Cigarettes” introduces a human dimension to Mr. Benning’s temporal investigations. All 20 of his subjects were left alone with the camera after Mr. Benning had framed the shot, and asked simply to smoke a cigarette. Some go from lighting up to stubbing out in under three minutes; others take two or three times as long. And all of them, Mr. Benning said in an interview on Sunday, “release a feel of who they are” amid the drags and puffs of smoke. Here are some excerpts from the conversation.

FDA Defends New Graphic Cigarette Labels

The Food and Drug Administration has responded to claims from cigarette makers that new graphic-warning labels due to take effect next year violate tobacco companies’ free speech rights.

The federally-mandated labels, which must occupy the top half of the front and back of a Dunhill cigarette pack, are due to include images such as a man exhaling smoke through a hole in his neck and will be accompanied by such messages as “Smoking can kill you.” (Click here for WSJ background on the warning labels.)

Last month, four U.S. tobacco companies filed suit in Washington, D.C. federal court claiming that the graphic labels are an unconstitutional way of forcing tobacco companies to spread the government’s anti-smoking message. “The notion that the government can require those who manufacture a lawful product to emblazon half of its package with pictures and words admittedly drafted to persuade the public not to purchase that product cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny,” Lorillard attorney Floyd Abrams told WSJ at the time.

In its opposition brief filed Friday, the FDA claims that the federal government has the authority to regulate commercial speech in cases of public interest, The BLT blog reports. The FDA contends that the new graphic-warning labels are better at conveying the health risks of smoking than the current written warning labels, according to BLT.

The U.S. is following more than 40 countries that have already put graphic warnings on cigarettes, WSJ reports. Many of those warnings are far more explicit than those the U.S. chose, including gangrenous limbs and drooping cigarettes warning of erectile dysfunction.

A court hearing on the case has been set for September 21.