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 [...]
The BBC has an article on the cigarette smuggling industry in the United Kingdom.
From BBC News:
The trade in illegal cigarettes in England is big business.
Customs officers seized more than 50 million illicit cigarettes and nearly 4,250 kilos of hand rolling tobacco in the West Midlands area in 2007.
Of these hauls, 70% were found to be [...]
With a tax proposal that would make a pack of cigarette cost $9, New York officials are worried about various methods to smuggle cigarettes.
From the AP:
Cigarettes are sold tax free on tribal lands in New York, and the savings are eye-popping. Once lawmakers approve the state’s latest hike, crafted last week,
smokers will be able to [...]
Representatives from 150 countries are meeting in Geneva to discuss the issue of cigarette smuggling on the black market.
Bloomberg News reports on the impact of this activity:
Estimates about the financial impact of the illegal tobacco trade vary. About 600 billion cigarettes, almost 11 percent of the 5.8 trillion cigarettes sold globally in 2006, entered [...]
The Chicago Tribune write about the practice of purchasing “loosies”, or cigarettes purchased one at a time instead of the entire pack.
Gregory Laurence walked into a West Side gas station last month with a handful of change and what’s become a routine request in some parts of the city. Offering a dollar’s worth of quarters, [...]
Akwesasne, a Mohawk reservation located in northern New York, is one of the busiest locations in the smuggling of cigarettes between the United States and Canada.
From the Associated Press:
A bit smaller than the Bronx, the reservation straddles New York state, Quebec and Ontario and is sliced by the St. Lawrence River. Border crossers here pass [...]
We are listing two new figures for the Cigarette Smuggling Market.
Ireland loses an estimated 100 Million Euros ($144 Million) in tax revenue due to cigarette smuggling. 38 Million cigarettes are smuggled through Dublin Airport alone each year.
New York City’s government loses and estimated $40 Million in tax revenue each year.
Worldwide, Havocscope is still listing the [...]
A big buyer of smuggled cigarettes in Canada has turned out to be high school students, according to another report by The Globe and Mail.
Three out of every 10 cigarettes inhaled by young smokers are from the unregulated black market, according to a survey of butts lying on the ground outside Quebec and Ontario high [...]
The Globe and Mail has reported on the increase in smuggled cigarettes in Canada, causing an estimated $1 Billion (Canadian) loss in tax revenue.
The article reported that the cigarettes that are smuggled are not branded cigarettes, but rather, simple cigarettes without a name.
The key difference between the early 1990s and today is that the scheme [...]
A study by Colombia University Mailman School of Public Health released in late June has found that raising the tax on cigarettes does create a market for the smuggling of cigarettes.
Increasing cigarette taxes is an effective strategy for reducing tobacco use but there may be negative consequences especially in disadvantaged minority communities. According to a [...]
