From: INTERPOL
Greater supply chain control and significant criminal and civil penalties needed
LYON, France – INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble is warning that a lack of oversight in the cigarette component supply chain is being exploited by organized crime to make billions in illegal profits by producing billions of illicit cigarettes.
Producers of acetate tow, a key component in cigarette filters, are exporting high volumes of their product to cigarette manufacturers, well above production requirements and in some cases significantly higher than government mandated levels for legitimate production.
In one country alone, figures showed a surplus of nearly 27,000 tonnes of acetate tow one year, enough to make 214 billion cigarettes – worth tens of millions of dollars on the black market.
