Stogie News: Don’t Fake It!
Wednesday, May 10th, 2006
Fort Lauderdale-based Altadis-USA, the world’s largest producer and distributor of cigars, recently declared war on the counterfeit cigar trade. How big is the fake stogie racket, you ask? Well, a crackdown of cigar and law enforcement officials in Miami this week seized over $20 million in fake cigars, wrappers, and packaging.
Altadis – which owns the rights to such famed brands as Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, and H. Upmann – always considered the fake cigar trade troublesome, but they didn’t realize the extent of the illegal industry until company officials participated in raids with Miami police last December.
Altadis had rented two, 25-foot trucks to cart away the fake merchandise, but had to swap those for an 18-wheeler when cops found the stockpiles of boxes, printing presses, and cigars…
But Stogie Guys readers need not worry – fake cigars should be fairly easy to detect. Not only will they have a sourer odor than their more legitimate relatives, but counterfeit stogies will often display different colors, can appear splotchy or moldy, and most will have loose-fitting wrappers.
I just hope the cops didn’t throw away their colossal cigar seizure. A fake smoke is a smoke nonetheless.
-Patrick A
[...] Back in May, we reported that Florida-based Altadis U.S.A. – the country’s largest manufacturer of cigars – declared war on the counterfeit stogie trade and how a subsequent crackdown of law enforcement officials in Miami seized over $20 million in fake cigars, wrappers, and packaging. What we didn’t tell you (because we didn’t know) is that Altadis funded, at least in part, the investigation that led to the seizure. [...]
[...] Now the bust we reported on in May, that resulted in Miami-Dade police seizing $20 million in fake cigars, is finally making its way to the courts: Federal prosecutors have dropped counterfeiting charges against a Little Havana cigar merchant who was accused of selling fake Cuban cigars whose trademarks belong to a major South Florida company. [...]
[...] Since May we’ve been keeping you up to speed on Altadis’ war against fake cigar trafficking and the ensuing controversy. [...]