There's nothing underhanded about a shop selling yellow banded Cohiba's that are marked with the correct band. Besides it being a nasty cigar it is a legal cigar...sorta. Here's a cut and paste of the history:
There is perhaps no brand name in the world more copied, counterfeited or fought over than the name Cohiba. Setting aside the problem of actual counterfeits, there are three 'legitimate' cigars you can get on many web sites that are called Cohibas. There are those that say that one, two or all three are not authentic and some are called counterfeits. So which is which?
To unravel the mystery, you have to go back to pre-revolutionary Cuba. At that time, a cigar was manufactured in Cuba by Cuban rollers, using Cuban tobaccos and blended by Cuban experts. That cigar called a Cohiba had an excellent reputation as a very strong and well made cigar. When Castro came to power and nationalized tobacco manufacturing, some of the leading experts, rollers and owners of patent rights left the country. They settled in many other countries including the US but the Dominican Republic acquired more than it's share of experts. That is where the problems began. The Cuban Cohiba brand continued to be manufactured in Cuba with less experienced rollers and without the experts that had blended the cigars in the past. In addition, the people that owned the copy rights to the name were now settled in the Dominican Republic.
Soon these immigrants began to do what they did best, grow tobacco and make cigars. They used the rollers and experts that came from Cuba but used Dominican or other tobaccos in their product after the US placed an embargo on Cuban products. The owners of the copy rights naturally started using the brand names they owned even though the product they produced was nothing like the product they had produced in Cuba. Through a series of purchases and mergers, the brand name Cohiba produced in the Dominican Republic was purchased by the General Cigar company. But in the confusion, some of the copy rights were not international copy rights but for specific countries. One such copy right was for cigars manufactured in the Domincan Republic for sale only in the Dominican Republic.
This led to a third brand that was called Cohiba but could only be sold in the Dominican. Some of these cigars were imported to the US under that name. They are manufactured at a factory called 'Montecristi' not to be confused with the brand name 'Montecristo'. Got all that straight? OK. When these cigars started coming into the US, General Cigar sought court action based on copy right infringement. They won the case but the judge ruled that any cigars that were already imported could be sold. No new imports, however, would be allowed. Of course, it is impossible to tell whether certain cigars were imported before or after the court order but there are legitimate cigars that can be purchased with name Cohiba that were manufactured in the Montecristi factory. So now we have three cigars you can purchase under the name of Cohiba. Here's how you tell the difference.
Cigars manufactured in Cuba have a yellow, black and white band. They say 'Cohiba' and have the words 'La Habana, Cuba' under the name. These words were added in the early 90s so should be present unless your buying very old cigars. The Dominican Republic cigars manufactured by General cigar have a completely different band. It is red, black and white with the 'o' in Cohiba filled in red, hence the name Cohiba red dots. The cigars manufactured at the Montecristi factory have a label that is yellow, black and white and similar to the Cuban band. The difference is the words 'La Habana, Cuba' are replaced with words 'Republica Dominicana'. These are commonly called yellow band Dominican Cohiba. So which are the Cohibas your friend said to try? My guess would be the red dots. Cuban Cohibas are, of course, illegal in the US and yellow band Dominican Cohibas by all accounts are not very good cigars.
