An ICIJ Investigation
Big Tobacco Smuggling
Down-and-out in developed nations, Big Tobacco is refocusing its lobbying on emerging markets.
CIGARETTE SMUGGLING NETWORK
Global reach of tobacco company’s involvement in cigarette smuggling exposed in company papers
By ICIJ
February 2, 2000
- During 2000 and 2001, a team of reporters from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists broke a series of landmark stories exposing how leading tobacco companies worked with criminal networks to smuggle cigarettes around the world.
- Relying on interviews with insiders and thousands of internal industry documents, the unique team - based in six countries - pieced together how smuggling played a key role in big tobacco's strategy to boost sales and increase market share.
- Those revelations, and others that followed, helped prompt lawsuits and government inquiries, and led to promises of a global crackdown on the illegal trade in tobacco.
