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  1. March 27, 2009

    Canada’s Boom in Smuggled Cigarettes

    Indian Tobacco Factories, Organized Crime Control a Billion-Dollar Black Market

    Gary Godelie has been a tobacco farmer most of his life, struggling to keep alive a family farm that produces what most everyone agrees is a death crop. Whacked by global competition undercutting his prices, not to mention a dwindling number of Canadian smokers, he often thinks of getting out of the business. Read more

  2. December 19, 2008

    Big Tobacco’s New York Black Market

    How America’s Top Cigarette Firms Fueled a Billion-Dollar Underground Trade

    For New York Governor David Paterson, there was no good option. Read more

  3. December 19, 2008

    SMOKE2U

    Tobacco Sales Take Off in Cyberspace

    There’s something odd about PO Box 365, Irving, New York. Located on the Seneca Nation — nestled just at the Empire State’s southwestern tip — the box is the mailing address for at least 10 online vendors registered in far-flung locations, from New York City to Ankara, Turkey. Boasting names like BigChiefCigarettes.com, Smoke2U.com, and EZTobacco.com, the sites bear no apparent affiliation to one another, except that they all sell one product: untaxed cigarettes. Read more

  4. October 19, 2008

    Made To Be Smuggled

    Russian Contraband Cigarettes ‘Flooding’ EU

    Europe is being flooded by smuggled Russian-made cigarettes worth at least $1 billion a year, an international investigation has discovered. Read more

  5. October 19, 2008

    Going Undercover

    Inside Baltic Tobacco’s Smuggling Empire

    ICIJ’s reporters went to Russia to uncover the truth about the billions of black market Jin Ling cigarettes turning up across Europe. They quickly learned that packets of Jin Ling could not be purchased even in the shops, markets, or street stalls of the Russian city where they are made, Kaliningrad. But Jin Ling was available to smugglers, in huge quantities, from its manufacturer, the Baltic Tobacco Factory. Read more

  6. October 19, 2008

    ‘The Guy in the Wheelchair’

    How an El Paso Smuggler Moved a Half-Billion Cigarettes Across America

    Jorge Abraham sits in his parents’ living room in a single-story rental on a rutted street in El Paso, Texas. His soft, sloping shoulders twitch involuntarily. His head and contorted right hand are the only parts of Abraham’s morbidly obese frame that move by volition — the result of a 1988 motorcycle accident that left him quadriplegic. Read more

  7. October 19, 2008

    Smoking Dragon, Royal Charm

    A Tale of Four FBI Agents, 62 Chinese Smugglers, and a Billion Bogus Cigarettes

    Here in California, it’s possible to pass within a mile of the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex and never once suspect it’s there. East of the Palos Verdes Hills, the port’s surrounding warehouses easily obscure the mass of steamers that daily arrive studded with stacks of containers bearing international cargo. Read more

  8. October 19, 2008

    Blame the Distributor

    How Gallaher Stayed in the Smuggling Game

    In 2004, Cyprus-based tobacco distributor Tlais Enterprises Limited (TEL) was told it had received a “red card” from British customs, a warning that the company was suspected of cigarette smuggling. Read more

  9. October 19, 2008

    How To Get Away With Smuggling

    Canada’s Billion-Dollar Deal for Big Tobacco

    The investigations had gone on for so long that most Canadians probably wrote them off as another victory for big corporations. Read more

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  2. June 28, 2009

    Tobacco, Terrorism, and Illicit Trade

    China, Paraguay, Ukraine: Inside the World's Top Smuggling Hubs

    Read more

  3. October 19, 2008

    The Secret Factory: Take an Undercover Tour of Baltic Tobacco

    Notorious as a haven for smugglers and money launderers, Kaliningrad, Russia, is not a place where it’s safe to ask… Read more

  4. October 19, 2008

    The Expert: Watch an interview With Luk Joossens

    Sociologist Luk Joossens is one of the world’s top experts on tobacco smuggling. In 1995, he co-authored a paper that… Read more

  5. October 19, 2008

    The Smuggler: Listen to Jorge Abraham

    Jorge Abraham was a tobacco smuggler from El Paso who masterminded the trafficking of as many as half a billion… Read more

  6. October 19, 2008

    The Expert: Listen to John Colledge

    In his more than 30 years in law enforcement, John W. Colledge investigated cigarette smuggling, narcotics, money laundering, and arms… Read more

  7. October 19, 2008

    The Undercover Cop: Listen to Ex-FBI Agent Tom Zyckowski

    Tom Zyckowski was one of four FBI agents who went undercover in parallel cigarette smuggling cases, Operation Royal Charm and… Read more

  8. October 19, 2008

    The Lawsuit: Read How Gallaher Smuggled

    Since a series of press exposés in 2000-2001 documented the tobacco industry’s extensive history of smuggling, the industry has seemingly… Read more

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About the Center

The Center for Public Integrity is dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern in the USA and around the world.

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International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

The Center’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is a collaboration of some of the world’s leading investigative reporters. ICIJ extends globally the Center’s style of watchdog journalism, working with 100 reporters in 50 countries to produce long-term, transnational projects.

ICIJ website