Authorities seize and destroy machines used by ilegal tobacco producer

By BKM | Berkemeyer

The machines used to manufacture counterfeited cigarettes were seized in May 2017 after an Intellectual Property related lawsuit filed by BKM, legal representative in Paraguay of global leading tobacco company Philip Morris.

The equipments, valued in USD 500,000, was located at a clandestine tobacco maker in Presidente Franco, a border port city located in the eastern sector of the country, along the Paraná River, which converges with the territories of Brazil (Foz do Iguaçu) and Argentina (Puerto Iguazú).

All equipments were destroyed at a warehouse of the Public Prosecutor's Office and two men prosecuted for infringing Law No. 1.294/1998 on Trademarks.

The proceeding complies with the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products -the first protocol to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC)- which entered into force in September 2018. The protocol was developed in response to the growing international illicit trade in tobacco products, which poses a serious threat to public health. Illicit trade causes substantial losses in government revenues, and at the same time contributes to the funding of transnational criminal activities.

Over the last thirty years Paraguay has seen a big growth of its tobacco industry, which in consequence has generated an extensive ilegal production of cigarettes for the black market, involving criminal groups that engage in large-scale tax evasion.