From: AP via The Washington Post
In this Aug. 24, 2018 photo, packs of illegal cigarettes stand for sale at a market in the Realengo neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Militias buy boxes of cigarettes in Paraguay for 14 cents a pack and then smuggle them home and sell them for up to $2.15, giving the groups the lion’s share of an estimated $330 million in profits and add to a portfolio of illicit operations the groups have honed over two decades. (Leo Correa/Associated Press)
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RIO DE JANEIRO — The latest scheme works like this: Brazilian paramilitary groups buy boxes of cigarettes in neighboring Paraguay for 14 cents a pack and then smuggle them back home, where prices and taxes are much higher, and sell them for up to $2.15.
The cigarettes offer the militias the lion’s share of an estimated $330 million in profits and add to a portfolio of illicit operations the groups have honed over two decades, including imposing surcharges on cable service, electricity and transportation. The groups are also known to conduct extortion and summary executions.
