Illicit Flows And Trafficking Southern Europe-Maghreb
Normal cigarettes sold in contraband ( unpaid taxes ) Low-cost contraband cigarettes ( cheap whites ) Counterfeit cigarettes ( low-cost illicit manufacturing ) Counterfeit raw , chopped , rolling tobacco
• 1 out of every 10 cigarettes smoked in the world is illicit .
• Counterfeit cigarettes contain on average ( versus branded cigarettes ): 5 times more cadmium 6 times more lead 133 times more carbon monoxide 160 times more tar 19
• Worldwide in 2015 , the turnover of illicit tobacco / cigarettes was approximately $ 40 billion , including $ 5.2 billion for counterfeit cigarettes .
EUROPEAN UNION
The market for illicit cigarettes in the EU is ± 9 percent of the total (± 48 billion cigarettes ), representing a tax loss of ± 10 billion euros per year .
AFRICA + MIDDLE EAST
From 2005 to 2015 , the sector in the world where the consumption of illicit
cigarettes is increasing the most is Africa and the Middle East . The percentage of illicit tobacco on the entire continent is 15 percent ; in West Africa , it is up to 80 percent ( at the outlet of the “ Route du Sud ” and the “ Route du Trabendo ”). People in the Maghreb ( from Morocco to Egypt ) smoke a lot and account for 40 to 50 percent of tobacco consumption on the entire African continent .
Traffic France-Maghreb : The Origin
The “ globalization from below ” did not begin in one fell swoop , on a fixed
date after the collapse of the Soviet Union and 1989 – 1990 , when the bipolar world order was abolished . It had begun long before , notably between France and the Maghreb , after the independence of the 1960s . If this “ globalization from below ” has its mysteries , it also has its origins , which we now set out .
In central Marseille , there is a rather dilapidated district called “ Belsunce .” In the 1960s – 1970s , it saw the birth — and was the first capital — of “ nomadic cap-
19 “ Counterfeit Cigarettes Contain Disturbing Toxic Substances ,” ICC-Fraudnet , August 28 , 2017 .
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