Imperial Tobacco investigator working with Chinese authorities uncovered a counterfeiting operation making packaging for the Golden Virginia brand to be sold via the Internet, the company announced.

Printing cylinders and eight rolls of packaging, enough for 150,000 packs of counterfeit tobacco, were seized by authorities at a facility in Guangdong Province. Imperial investigators initially became suspicious of product offered on the Alibaba.com trading website and worked with Chinese investigators to locate its source.
In addition, Hangzhou Customs seized five shipments of tobacco pouches and tax stamps likely bound for the illicit market in the UK, Imperial said. The shipments could have been used to produce 48,600 tobacco pouches, Imperial said. (ci)