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Yet is there an international, violent, criminal cigarette mafia? No. It's the level of Canadians not declaring their cheaper shopping goods from the USA when
by mahyarm 14y ago
Yet is there an international, violent, criminal cigarette mafia? No. It's the level of Canadians not declaring their cheaper shopping goods from the USA when they cross the border to avoid tax.
- jat850 14y agoThat's naive. Where there is profit margin, there is crime. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-05-02-atf-cigarette-smuggling.htm http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-05-02-atf-ci... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/27/cigarette-smuggling-mokhtar-belmokhtar-terrorism http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/27/cigarette-smuggl...
- peterjancelis 14y agoCorrection: When the government uses the threat of force to ensure their cut on peaceful transactions, crime arises.
- DanBC 14y agoIt's nowhere near as serious as the Mexican Narco gangs. No one is being dissolved in vats of lye for smuggled cigarettes. But it is more serious than Joe Sixpack bringing in a few extra undeclared bottles of whisky. Cigarettes are legal and regulated, but high tax, and it is the high tax that causes smuggling and counterfeiting. Real cigarettes used to be exported from the UK, (thus avoiding UK duties) and then smuggled back in (again, to avoid the duty). The outward flow was stopped, but that means that counterfeiters stepped in. Now there's a more dangerous product, with less regulation, being smuggled in to the UK. Criminal gangs are involved in the production and distribution of counterfeit cigarettes. Raids on distribution find amounts in the order of ten million cigarettes. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-20297912 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-20297912)
- leephillips 14y ago"Yet is there an international, violent, criminal cigarette mafia?" Yes. The groups trafficking in bootleg (untaxed) cigarettes are quite violent.