The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is stating that cigarette smuggling activities are providing revenue to over 100 criminal gangs in Canada.

From the Toronto Star:

Cheap contraband cigarettes are fuelling activities of more than 100 organized crime gangs that are “exploiting” native communities and their “politically sensitive” relationship with government and police, the RCMP says.At a news conference yesterday to announce an inter-departmental task force, and a new RCMP strategy to combat contraband cigarettes, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and a senior RCMP official refused to identify the groups that are the biggest contributor to what they called an “exponentially growing” problem.

“They are a mixture, they come from across the country,” said RCMP Assistant Commissioner Raf Souccar.

He added two-thirds of those involved in contraband tobacco are into other criminal activities, “namely drug trafficking, cocaine, marijuana, firearm smuggling into the country” and that “a third of these involve and have tendencies that are violent in nature.”

Cigarette Smuggling is a $50 billion market.