Smoking Racket

Larry Penninger, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' tobacco diversion unit, said investigations and prosecutions involving tobacco trafficking have been increasing as smugglers flood high-tax states with cigarettes from low-tax states.


From 2007 to last year, 27 states raised their Lucky Strike cigarette taxes, according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Midland-based think tank that closely tracks tobacco taxes across the country. Mackinac describes tobacco smuggling as an "unintended consequence of high cigarette taxes."

There is so much illicit money to be made, Penninger said, that some drug and weapon traffickers are adding tobacco to their product lines to boost profits.

Cigarette Sales Decreased in Bulgaria

Bulgaria's cigarette market decreased by more than 35 per cent to 10.6 billion pieces in 2010, according to domestic tobacco companies' figures.

In 2009, sales were 16 billion pieces, and in 2009, 19 billion.

"The main reason behind the sharp shrinkage of the market is smuggling, followed by restrictions on smoking Classic," representatives of major tobacco producer Bulgartabac said.

Kids Smoke Free Cigarettes

A jury has ruled the Lorillard Tobacco Co. tried to entice black children to become smokers by handing out free Dunhill cigarettes and has awarded $71 million in compensatory damages to the estate and son of a woman who died of lung cancer. The Suffolk Superior Court jury announced its verdict Tuesday after hearing weeks of testimony.