From: The Washington Post | Opinion
By
Joe Fox served as the chief of the Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement Branch and the subject matter expert on tobacco diversion for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Tobacco smuggling, which helps fund terrorist activities by al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban and the Islamic State, is wreaking criminal havoc in Virginia, the United States and the world, and it’s time to do something about it.
In drawing the link between illicit tobacco smuggling and terrorist financing, a 2015 report by the State Department and four other agencies said that a former al-Qaeda operative and Islamic Maghreb senior commander “is known as ‘Mr. Marlboro’ because of his involvement in cigarette smuggling as a means to raise funds for his terrorist organization.”
