[Intl-tobacco] UK: Smuggling Investigation I

[Robert Weissman]

EDITORIAL: Smoking guns
by Evening Standard Editorial Comment
Source: This is London (Associated Newspapers), Monday, 1/15/01

The tobacco companies Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher say that they deplore
cigarette smuggling. No doubt they do. No doubt they have no connection
with the organised crime syndicates which are smuggling up to 20 billion
cigarettes a year into Britain, representing virtually one in three of the
cigarettes smoked here.

But as the investigation we carry today plainly reveals, the trail of
responsibility leads inexorably back to the big tobacco companies. Nearly
half the two billion smuggled cigarettes seized by Customs in the last 12
months have been brands smoked almost exclusively by Britons, the vast
majority produced by Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher. Many come from Cyprus.

Before Andorra's cigarette-smuggling racket was stopped by Andorran
customs, the big tobacco companies shipped just 435 million cigarettes to
Cyprus each year; now they ship six billion, most of which come back
illegally and are sold clandestinely in bars, clubs and car parks for
about £2.50 a packet.

Meanwhile, in 1999, Imperial's international cigarette sales increased by
40 per cent, and Gallaher's by 27 per cent. British American Tobacco is
currently under investigation by the DTI for allegedly encouraging
smuggling. The onus is on Gallaher and Imperial Tobacco to demonstrate
that they are not doing the same.