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Subscribe to RSSSwedish prosecutors have issued international arrest warrants for two Britons suspected of masterminding a smuggling ring involving over a ton of Chinese garlic.
The men first shipped the garlic to Norway by boat, where it entered the country duty-free since it was considered to be in transit, prosecutor Thomas Ahlstrand said Wednesday. They then drove the approximately 1.2 tons of garlic across the expansive Norwegian-Swedish border, avoiding customs checks and thus Swedish import duties.
Ahlstrand said the men avoided more than $13.1 million in Swedish taxes through the scheme. A lengthy police investigation led to the identification of the two Britons allegedly behind the Swedish operation, which took place in 2009-10.
It was not the first time smugglers had shown a preference for garlic from China, which accounts for nearly 80 percent of world output and is often significantly cheaper than local varieties.
In 2010, Polish authorities seized six containers with 144 tons of Chinese garlic that had been smuggled into the country via the Netherlands.
It was not immediately clear whether the Polish smuggling was linked to the Swedish case.
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Thank goodness the Swedes have garlic-sniffing dogs.
Little known fact: garlic-sniffing dogs are regarded by the Chinese cookbook "100 Ways to Wok Your Dog" as delicacy and a "rare and special treat" for their poignant aroma and supposed health benefits.
one big question unanswered; why must Nations place a hevy tax on imported food items, when they do not grow enough in their own country to meet demand !
Well that stinks!
Look to Gilroy, CA for a better idea!
Actually, it doesn't. The chinese garlic around here are tasteless, and for some reason, never seem to rot or sprout. It's very very VERY cheap, but you get what you pay for. A bag from Costco is 4x's as much as the import stuff, but it tastes and smells 100x better. And in the end, that's what you're buying it for, right?
Gilroy Garlic Fest is A-MAZ-ING.
Chinese share of the world garlic market will plummet when the FDA eventually finds excessive levels of harmful pesticides, industrial chemical residues, etc. from the polluted water used for irrigation of their farms.
I guess that kills any ideas for Chinese vampire movies...
Anyone else think that $13 million in taxes on 3000lbs of garlic is beyond excessive? There has to be a typo somewhere in this article.
It is only 2400 lb of garlic and I would that $5,458 a pound would be considered a bit excessive anywhere.
yep, they screwed up either the price or the quantity. Or I'm going to be the next garlic grower in Sweden.
A ton is 2000lbs. 1.5 tons is 3000lbs.
It's Sweden - another Euro Welfare Country. How do you think they pay their citizens for being citizens? By taxing ever last dollar out of them they can!
This article is terrible, just a plain terrible hatchet job of alleged writing. Obviously starting with the 1.2 ton remark, if you look at a more reputable article on the Independent in the UK, it appears this writer saw the 1,200 ton mark and assumed that since its from Europe it must be that the comma is the equivalent decimal point. The decimal point England is the same as in America. In the UK article another major point is that they smuggled 10 million Euro's worth of garlic, not avoided 10 million euro's worth of taxes. The import tax rate is 9.6 % according to the article which would be 960,000 Euro's. Lets check these numbers, 10 million divide by 2,646,000 (1,200 tones * 2205 lbs. per metric ton) = 3.779 Euros /per or 4.95 dollars per pound value. This seems relatively reasonable to me.
Garlic is so easy to grow. I can't imagine why anyone would have to smuggle it. If you have a clove of garlic, just plant it and watch it grow.
Wow, that's a lot of taxes for a ton of garlic. That's almost $410/OZ. Something must be wrong in the reporting.....
1.2 tons is not that much, that can easily fit in a pickup truck... i doubt it's only for such a small amount the tax nazi is up in arms.... clearly the article writer has no sense of math or size.... lol amazingly these are the kinds of journalistic value msnbc has and we read from.... just think of all the other nonsense we are up and arms about probably for some idiotic writing as the source.
Time for new garlic smuggling control laws!
Really! $13 million in taxes for 2400 lbs of garlic - that breaks down to $341 per ounce in taxes. I wouldn't pay it either!
From The Independent :
Makes more sense now!
If every country will issue international arrest warrants for smuggling/avoid tax, we will have at least one hundred million international arrest warrants; and every jails and courts will clog just because of extradition problem!!!