From: Express & Star
Huge profits from smokers who buy cheap and illegal cigarettes are ending up in the hands of criminal gangs and terrorists.
Those who buy counterfeit and illegal tobacco are almost universally oblivious to the fact that they are part of an elaborate criminal network inflicting pain and misery on innocent people all over the world.
Cheap and counterfeit tobacco made in unregulated factories across the world has flooded the market in the Black Country, with up to 50 per cent of loose tobacco now believed to be fake.
The United Nations Security Council’s investigative body has found that millions of pounds in illicit tobacco revenues are reaching al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist organisations.
It also established that funds generated through these sales have helped to finance Congolese rebels who recruit child soldiers and have been responsible for atrocities in the African state.
