Customs to crack down on social media tobacco smugglers

Monday 26 June 2017

Customs officials will be contacting Facebook in a bid to shut down an illegal network of Island tobacco sellers, who use the social network to make profit by circumventing strict tax rules.

Islanders are currently allowed to bring 200 duty-free cigarettes or 250g of rolling tobacco into the Island when they travel, but it is against the law to trade any of these, as the allowance is for personal use only.

An Express investigation revealed, however, that cigarettes and tobacco were being sold across local buy and sell communities on Facebook in breach of both local laws, and Facebook’s own Commerce Policy, which states that the sale of, “…Tobacco items and related paraphernalia” is “prohibited.”

Among the most popular pages were two dedicated groups, which have a following of over 1,700 between them. On the groups – one of which advertises itself as being “a place where you can sell and buy the tobacco you want for the right price” and asks their members to delete posts after sale – users regularly sell rolling tobacco pouches for between £12 and £15, while cigarette multipacks combined with alcohol are able to fetch as much as £90.

Pictured: A selection of the products advertised on 'Jersey tobacco share'.

Most posts were found to incorporate photographs of the products being sold, with even those showing products with ‘FOR DUTY FREE SALE ONLY’ clearly marked on their packaging still attracting significant interest from purchasers.

The problem, Customs and Immigration’s Director of Law Enforcement Steve Le Marquand explained, is that taxes known as Impôts on tobacco had increased annually above the cost of living. As of January 1 this year, packs of 20 cigarettes rose by 45p, while prices for a packet of rolling tobacco shot up by £1.65.

“In some years, there’s been double figure percentage increases. The reasoning for that is designed to make it more expensive to smoke and, in turn, stop people from smoking. By the same token, it does make smoking more expensive and it can potentially make people turn to smuggling or selling things on Facebook with a view to making a profit,” Mr Le Marquand told Express.

Pictured: A sample of the posts on the illegal social media selling sites.

Mr Le Marquand said that the rises had led to “almost daily” attempts to break the allowance limit at the Island’s Ports, as well as a “handful” of commercial smuggling cases -  both by those travelling to the UK with “empty suitcases” to stock up on “thousands” of cigarettes and Jersey-based fake travellers, who, at one point, initiated a boarding pass scam in which they would buy a cheap ticket before filling up at World Duty Free and exiting the airport without hopping on a plane.

Last year, the States of Jersey collected £14.6 million in tobacco duties, but this figure could rise in future if authorities are able to successfully recuperate lost revenue from such criminal underground tobacco traders.

While Mr Le Marquand advised that Customs had previously given “strong words of warning” to Facebook sellers as well as forcing them to pay the uncollected duty, he said that border officials did not have the resources to handle each and every case – the reason why they welcomed Facebook’s hard-line policy, which they’ll be using to shut the pages down.

Pictured: A seller advertises an Amber Leaf tobacco pouch for £14, despite it being marked, 'FOR DUTY FREE SALE ONLY'.

He commented: “Rather than trying to pick these people off one by one, it’s going to be much better for us to be able to work with Facebook with a view to then shutting the whole site down…

“If we had to follow up every single case, we wouldn’t have anyone down the Ports probably - that’s the balancing act. Obviously it would be better if we were challenging every single person that was selling these and collecting the appropriate duty, but we’ve got to balance that against doing an immigration control and drugs coming in. It’s about priorities.”