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An ICIJ Investigation
Big Tobacco Smuggling
Down-and-out in developed nations, Big Tobacco is refocusing its lobbying on emerging markets.
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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.