Havana Airport Uncovers Shipment Aimed at Counterfeiting Cuban Cigars

[El Presidente]

 

 

Havana Airport Uncovers Shipment Aimed at Counterfeiting Cuban Cigars

 

 

Authorities at Cuba's General Customs Office intercepted an attempt to smuggle a substantial quantity of counterfeit materials through Havana's "José Martí" International Airport. These included fake authorizations, sales invoices, and other stickers intended for the counterfeiting of Cuban cigars, as reported by official sources.

This discovery was revealed by Wiliam Pérez González, the Deputy Chief of Customs, who stated on the social media platform X that it was an "attempt to illegally introduce a large amount of fake authorizations, sales invoices, and other stickers through Havana Airport."

The involved passenger has been handed over to the police authorities, as confirmed by the official.

Seized items included circular golden adhesive labels meant to serve as seals of authenticity, hologram-like tax stamps, red plastic pieces for cigar box seals, small yellow cans, and customs forms.

Particularly notable was the variety of languages found on the labels. Some carried health warnings in Spanish, such as "Fumar mata" ("Smoking kills") and "Este producto puede ser dañino para su salud y crea adicción" ("This product can harm your health and is addictive"), while others were in German, with messages like "Rauchen ist tödlich" ("Smoking is deadly").

This suggests the materials were intended for the counterfeiting of Cuban cigars targeting European markets, both Spanish and German-speaking.

Additionally, several Spanish-language labels referenced Spanish organizations and websites, reinforcing the theory that the ultimate destination might have been the Spanish market. Since October 2003, Spain has been using adhesive holographic seals with unique codes to authenticate Cuban cigars sold within its borders, making these seals a frequent target for counterfeit networks.

 

https://www.cubaheadlines.com/articles/325704

[chris12381]

The pad of facturas is impressive.  

[JohnnyO]

In the past they put these guys in the can 72 hours, send them back and don't allow that person back in for 2 years if they were a foreign national. If you are a Cuban living abroad the party's over, different set of rules. They might be stricter this time around. "Stupid and lazy is no way to go through Cuban Customs son"

[Dadof3]

So they were bringing fake Cuban stickers and labels in to Cuba? How would this be put into the genuine stream of commerce? If you are a retailer in Europe you get your supply from the licensed supplier don't you? I guess there are enough shady outlets but why go to those places?  

[El Presidente]

1 hour ago, Dadof3 said:

So they were bringing fake Cuban stickers and labels in to Cuba? How would this be put into the genuine stream of commerce? If you are a retailer in Europe you get your supply from the licensed supplier don't you? I guess there are enough shady outlets but why go to those places? 

  No. 

There are plenty of retailers, physical and online, who couldn't give a rat's arse. Stock is short. Rents need to be paid. New supply lines are sought as they are let down by traditional supply lines. If they look OK, few questions are asked. 

[BrightonCorgi]

3 hours ago, Dadof3 said:

So they were bringing fake Cuban stickers and labels in to Cuba? 

Exiting Cuba.

[ATGroom]

4 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Exiting Cuba.

The article isn't totally clear either way, but I believe these would be entering Cuba. They are the raw materials for Cuban fake producers.

There is a large and sophisticated "parallel factory" operation in Cuba that manufactures fakes with seemingly genuine boxes and bands (presumably diverted from the legitimate factories), and fake warranty seals and Minisap stickers. The cigars use quality Cuban tobacco but taste off compare to legit cigars. It likely comes directly from the farms, and not the government pre-industry facilities, so it has different fermentation procedures, ageing etc.

The warranty seals and Minisap stickers are applied at the Habanos SA warehouse so I guess control there is a bit more strict than at other parts of the process, which is why they need to import fake of these.

It's also been obvious for years that there were fake producers making boxes with fake Spanish, German, Swiss etc stickers on them, although I always assumed this would be done in China. Interesting that the Cuban operation makes them too, and interesting that they apparently apply the stickers in Cuba before they export the stock (in the legitimate market, these are applied locally in the importer's warehouses).

Fake factura pad - again, that's a new one. Facturas are supposed to be controlled, in that they are issued by the distributor and are supposed to line up with stock sold in the stores. I've seen many people over the years who have been able to present facturas for fake boxes, but I just assumed that the factura system wasn't that secure and staff could fudge it for a fee. In theory, the unofficial shops in Cuba that sell fakes shouldn't be able to issue facturas and therefore their stock can't be exported in bulk. Fake factura pad would solve this issue.

Can anybody identify the "red plastic pieces for cigar box seals" and "small yellow cans" in the bottom left corner of the second photo and what these are used for?

[SUP8333]

It's probably one factura printed 99999 times for a box of D4s. 🤣

[Salomones]

9 hours ago, ATGroom said:

Can anybody identify the "red plastic pieces for cigar box seals" and "small yellow cans" in the bottom left corner of the second photo and what these are used for?

The red plastic pieces are stamps for box codes. The yellow stickers should be the Spanish seal.

[ATGroom]

4 hours ago, Salomones said:

The yellow stickers should be the Spanish seal.

By "small yellow cans" I'm talking about these. I would probably call them red cans, but the article calls them yellow.

These are the Spanish stickers (or as the article refers to them, "circular golden adhesive labels meant to serve as seals of authenticity"):

 

4 hours ago, Salomones said:

The red plastic pieces are stamps for boxcodes.

They could be maybe a 3D printed something with the factory stamp font, but they aren't what the stamps they use in the factories look like.

I would think that Cuban fake producers would be able to get their hands on the same stamps the factories use, but I suppose it is plausible that they can't so they have something made instead. Seems like a stretch though.

[Habanoschris]

I thought red blocks are stamps with date & factory code and red &yellow tins are maybe ink? Or Cuban twang 🤣jk. Believe it or not, I had some photos from a makeshift factory located inside Cuba (much like you are describing). It was being run by an Italian guy. This person shared with me what looked like two farm rolls (wrapped in newspaper) when I initially met him & then later he sent me photos of several boxes and the small scale "factory" in Cuba were sent to me via whatsapp. It looked like they were making cigars to match whatever boxes they could get. I'm trying to see if I ever backed the images up. They were using Cuban grown tobacco. Boxes all looked legit - it was troubling.  

Maybe similar to these?

[LaoFan]

I'd be curious to know where the guy was from. China is all hands on deck in copy mode right now. The most common I'm hearing right now is: take 5 real cigars out of each box and replace them with look alikes. 20% increase in margins.

[Habanoschris]

43 minutes ago, LaoFan said:

take 5 real cigars out of each box and replace them with look alikes. 20% increase in margins.

I have suspected this for years. 

[ATGroom]

2 hours ago, Habanoschris said:

Maybe similar to these?

Pretty definitely the "Fan Yi round printing" from your second image. Only seems to come in red ink as far as I can find on Google, but someone with a Chinese search Engine likely could find a black version.

Or else it is red ink intended for something other than the box stamps, like numbering the facturas.

43 minutes ago, LaoFan said:

take 5 real cigars out of each box and replace them with look alikes. 20% increase in margins.

I'm sure it happens, but I'd think more at the level of "opportunistic grifter" than "professional vendor."

[Marco_011t556]

2 hours ago, ATGroom said:

Pretty definitely the "Fan Yi round printing" from your second image. Only seems to come in red ink as far as I can find on Google, but someone with a Chinese search Engine likely could find a black version.

Or else it is red ink intended for something other than the box stamps, like numbering the facturas.

I'm sure it happens, but I'd think more at the level of "opportunistic grifter" than "professional vendor."

USD 2 for one tin, black blue red, etc

 

[BrightonCorgi]

19 hours ago, ATGroom said:

The article isn't totally clear either way, but I believe these would be entering Cuba. They are the raw materials for Cuban fake producers.

Thanks for the clarification. I assume the materials are considered counterfeit when they are not used in official purposes.

[abcd1234]

On 4/14/2026 at 6:14 AM, El Presidente said:

  No. 

There are plenty of retailers, physical and online, who couldn't give a rat's arse. Stock is short. Rents need to be paid. New supply lines are sought as they are let down by traditional supply lines. If they look OK, few questions are asked. 

In a sense it's a good sign then that none of the cigar shops here in Stockholm have gotten delivery of Cubans in three months since they arrested that crazy Chinese dude, who amongst other things happened to be the UBO for the Nordic habanos distributor. (Apparently they got their tobacco license revoked.) 

19 hours ago, ATGroom said:

The article isn't totally clear either way, but I believe these would be entering Cuba. They are the raw materials for Cuban fake producers.

There is a large and sophisticated "parallel factory" operation in Cuba that manufactures fakes with seemingly genuine boxes and bands (presumably diverted from the legitimate factories), and fake warranty seals and Minisap stickers. The cigars use quality Cuban tobacco but taste off compare to legit cigars. It likely comes directly from the farms, and not the government pre-industry facilities, so it has different fermentation procedures, ageing etc.

The warranty seals and Minisap stickers are applied at the Habanos SA warehouse so I guess control there is a bit more strict than at other parts of the process, which is why they need to import fake of these.

It's also been obvious for years that there were fake producers making boxes with fake Spanish, German, Swiss etc stickers on them, although I always assumed this would be done in China. Interesting that the Cuban operation makes them too, and interesting that they apparently apply the stickers in Cuba before they export the stock (in the legitimate market, these are applied locally in the importer's warehouses).

Fake factura pad - again, that's a new one. Facturas are supposed to be controlled, in that they are issued by the distributor and are supposed to line up with stock sold in the stores. I've seen many people over the years who have been able to present facturas for fake boxes, but I just assumed that the factura system wasn't that secure and staff could fudge it for a fee. In theory, the unofficial shops in Cuba that sell fakes shouldn't be able to issue facturas and therefore their stock can't be exported in bulk. Fake factura pad would solve this issue.

Can anybody identify the "red plastic pieces for cigar box seals" and "small yellow cans" in the bottom left corner of the second photo and what these are used for?

So we are essentially getting farm rolls now?

[JohnnyO]

The fake facturas have been around for a long time, I saw them in the 90's. No shop will be willing to manufacture a false factura, as it has to show up as one of their sales from their inventory. I saw on many occasions in the little room stacks of custom rolled from "Alex from Commodoro" with no facturas. Once they reach their allotment everything is off the books. I have even bought Monsdales from Club Havana and the guy that replaced Mons refused to give me facturas. He said that's your problem. All of this has China written all over it. Not necessarily that it would end up in that market but the mastermind and labels are coming from there to be distributed in European markets. BTW, there is a weekly Saturday flight that flies Havana-Madrid-Bejiing. John