Comments on: More on Silvio Zammit’s under-the-counter ‘snus’ racket

By: dissident

dissident — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 00:34:53 +0000

Snus is big business in Sweden, nearly ever Swede I meet (and i meet a lot) uses it so 60 million is pennies to ask from Swedish Match, not “fantasmagorical”

By: George

George — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 23:27:58 +0000

Dalli stated that he sent a judicial letter to Silvio in August. Had his meetings with Silvio at his (Peppi’s) Kiosk stopped after that?

[Daphne – He did not send him a judicial letter. Once we discovered that isn’t true, he’s now claiming he sent him a straightforward ‘ittra b’avukat.’]

By: C Falzon

C Falzon — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 18:40:01 +0000

In reply to NICHOLAS ELLUL. As far as I can tell, the way they got to know him is because he went to them with his offer to set things right for them in exchange for a little consideration.

By: NICHOLAS ELLUL

NICHOLAS ELLUL — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:07:17 +0000

Can somebody tell me how the Swedish suppliers got to know Silvio Zammit? Surely they first approached John Dalli who obviously gave them his contact details.

By: John Zammit

John Zammit — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:56:57 +0000

Can anyone enlighten me why snus is banned? I assume it is a health hazard, but why is there a derogation in Sweden about this if it is dangerous?

[Daphne – For pretty much the same reason that we had derogations on bird-shooting in Malta, except that those were temporary because the birds were not ours, but the Swedes are free to kill themselves with their traditional product.]

By: Alfred Bugeja

Alfred Bugeja — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:28:08 +0000

So Silvio Zammit was probably earning a good buck from his illegal snus operation at Peppi’s, but demanded €60 million to have the ban on the sale of snus outside Sweden lifted, effectively wiping the need for his smuggling operation to exist.

I guess he’s good at maths and probably worked out how many snus packets he would have to sell under the counter to put €60 million together.

By: Francis Saliba

Francis Saliba — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:01:45 +0000

In reply to La Redoute. Because no intelligent person would be so stupid, and so rash, as to commence legal proceedings knowing that he would have to depend had no proof other than the hostile OLAF and its mysterious and inadequate circumstantial evidence.

By: La Redoute

La Redoute — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:58:38 +0000

And note, too, that no one asked John Dalli why, if he was so sure that Silvio Zammit had been carrying on behind his back and he had the email to prove it, he didn’t immediately fire off a statement saying that he was going to sue Zammit for misrepresenting him.

By: RJC

RJC — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 07:41:19 +0000

Maybe this (sale of snus) is what Silvio meant when he declared to be a lobbyist.