EU sniffs out 28 tons of illegal Chinese garlic

Jul 7, 2010, 17:20 GMT

Brussels - European Union fraud investigators proved that they have a nose for crime as they announced on Wednesday that they had sniffed out 28 tons of illegal fresh garlic from China.

The EU imposes a 9.6-per-cent tariff on fresh Chinese garlic, together with a flat fee of 1,200 euros (1,500 dollars) per ton. Smugglers, turning up their noses at the fee, are estimated to have run 1,200 tons of illegal garlic into Europe over the last 18 months.

But on June 18, investigators from the Norwegian and Swedish customs agencies and the EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF, stopped a truckload of fresh garlic on the Swedish border.

In a carefully-laid sting, or possibly stink, they proved that the cargo had not been declared, and impounded the lot.

OLAF officials declined to reveal what had happened to the driver and the garlic, saying that the investigation was ongoing.

Chinese garlic has proven to be a regular apple of discord for the EU's customs forces. Smugglers have in the past tried shipping it via third countries, labelling it as dried garlic or 'elephant' (single-clove) garlic, or providing it with fake travel documents, in order to evade the bloc's sharp-nosed detectives.