It seems Sweden is an ongoing target for international smugglers of . . . wait for it . . . of all things . . . garlic! The Local reports:
Sweden has issued an arrest warrant for two Britons suspected of smuggling millions of dollars' worth of garlic into Sweden from Norway.
The two men are believed to be behind a massive garlic smuggling operation whereby huge quantities of the popular seasoning were shipped from China to Norway and then brought over the Swedish border illicitly in order to avoid European Union import duties.
Prosecutors estimate the pair smuggled around €10 million ($13.1 million) worth of garlic into Sweden for distribution throughout the EU.
. . .
While garlic can be imported to Norway from China duty-free, the EU slaps a 9.6 percent duty on garlic imports.
According to the warrant, the Britons are suspected of using a company set up in Norway to profit from the import duty discrepancy, smuggling more than 100 tonnes of garlic across the Swedish border since 2009.
There's more at the link. Apparently this isn't the first example of such crimes; a 2010 report also described them as a major problem.
According to a British report, the men are accused of smuggling a total of over 1,300 US tons of garlic. I wonder what that would smell like, all in one pile? Talk about 'high' crimes and misdemeanors . . . !
Peter
I'm guessing that the bloodsuckers running the government got scared they would be run off.
ReplyDeleteLast Christmas there was a butter shortage in Norway and there was a huge amount of butter being smuggled from Sweden to Norway to avoid dairy tariffs. Daily part of living in this part of the world.
ReplyDeleteGuess they don't want garlic ruining the flavor of their Lutfisk.
ReplyDelete"Five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark,
ReplyDeleteBrandy for the Parson, 'baccy for the clark.
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy.
Watch the wall, my darling, as the gentlemen go by." - Rudyard Kipling