Iraqi mission staff fined over cigarette smuggling

Two officials working at the Iraqi diplomatic mission in Geneva have received stiff fines for a huge cigarette smuggling scam. Some 600,000 packets of cigarettes were sold on the black market in northwest France. The two Iraqi permanent mission staff members were fined CHF170,000 ($177,000) and CHF120,000 for the cigarette smuggling ring, which owed CHF2.4 million in unpaid tax. The Federal Customs Administration on Monday confirmed a SonntagsZeitung report which stated that they had abused privileges normally reserved for diplomats and illegally resold duty-free cigarettes in France over a three-year period. As smuggling has a seven-year statute of limitations, almost a third of the volume could not be sanctioned. The federal authorities also rejected a request from the Iraqi mission to reduce the fine of one of the employees, who has since been fired. According to the customs office, the smugglers ordered the cigarettes from a firm in northern Germany which ...