Italy Plans Crackdown On Contraband Cigarettes (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Italy Plans Crackdown On Contraband Cigarettes
by Dow Jones Newswires
Date: Saturday, 7/17/99

ROME (AP)--The Italian government, keen on cracking down on contraband
smokes that compete with state brands, is pushing for stiff fines for
smoking illegal cigarettes.

Premier Massimo D'Alema's Cabinet Friday approved a bill calling for a
fine of ITL1 million for anyone caught smoking cigarettes brought in by
smugglers. The measures, which need to be approved by parliament before
becoming law, also include heavy fines and prison terms for the smugglers
themselves.

Last year, police confiscated some 1,690 tons of contraband cigarettes,
most of them arriving by speedboats that ply the Adriatic at night.
Running the illicit trade are organized crime syndicates in southern
Italy, especially around Naples and in Puglia, in southeast Italy. Their
suppliers are often gangs in the Balkans.

But for every pack of confiscated contraband cigarette, about 10 packs
slip in undetected.

The illicit smokes are then hawked in the streets - often openly along
major thoroughfares in Rome and Naples among other places - to smokers
eager to avoid paying taxes and higher prices in tobacco shops for foreign
brands and national brands manufactured by the Italian state tobacco
company.

URL for this Article:
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=DI-CO-19990717-000249.djml